Cats, Hair, And Good Evil Wizards
by Imania
Summary: It must be hard to be an evil wizard among all these do-gooders. Magus' journey to find his new groove is helped (or maybe hindered) by some takeovers of the castle kitchen, haircuts, way too much sweet water and prehistoric eating utensils. COMPLETE
1. Default Chapter

Author's Note: I would like to state that I don't own these characters. None of them. NADA! Not even one of those unimportant characters that no one likes, okay? Wait... I do own Kelke Peatsar, he is mine, but I could lend him out to you by special request. And a small, non-existent fee. Everyone else belongs to Square. Yay. For them. Please don't flame me, but reviews are our friends. I am open to criticism, being it good or nasty. (But not TOO nasty...) Beware of plot holes. They hurt if you fall into them. I know they're there, but artistic licence, okay? And now, please enjoy! OR ELSE!!!  
  
  
  
Of Cats, Hair and Good Evil Wizards  
  
Magus stood near the steps at the End of Time, cloak and hair flowing in the non-existent breeze. He gazed out at the void darkly. Maybe he pondered the mysteries of the void, maybe he plotted his revenge, maybe he was just zoned out. The others didn't know, and they didn't really care.  
  
Whatever he was doing, he was so absorbed in it he didn't notice the movement until it was too late. He turned, but Ayla had already fastened her teeth to his arm.  
  
"Ow!" he shrieked and zapped her.  
  
She scampered back a bit and looked back at the main group, where the others were laughing. "Frog lie!" she accused, "Magus not tasty!"  
  
"Scram," growled the angry evil wizard. Ayla ran back to the others.  
  
Somewhat gloomily now, Magus resumed looking at the void until another movement caught his eye. The Epoch! The others were back! Finally, something to do!  
  
Lucca was the first to jump up on the steps. She stumbled and almost fell. Magus took a few steps back and made no move to steady her. Surprisingly, Crono was next.  
  
'Isn't he dead?' thought Magus with some irritation.  
  
The next, and last, to jump up was Marle, the annoying princess. She stood Crono in front of Magus and said happily, "We saved Crono! Isn't it great?"  
  
For a moment Magus was quiet. He was trying to think of something nasty to say. Finally he turned to Crono and said matter-of-factly, "You got whacked, 'cuz you're weak."  
  
The others just stared at him. "Going my way?" he inquired as if he didn't really care.  
  
"No!" Marle spat.  
  
He turned back to the void. "The weak always strive to be weaker..."  
  
Angrily, Marle strode on. Crono and Lucca followed.  
  
Magus was aware of some meaningless chatter going on in the group. The old man, Gaspar, was telling them something. After a while Crono walked past, with Marle and Frog.  
  
"The useless," announced Frog as he walked past Magus, "never do end up doing anything." Magus saw fit only to ignore this comment. The stupid frog would pay for it later.  
  
Crono led the way into the Epoch, and they went off to 1000 AD to go and talk to Marle's father for no apparent reason. He was very happy when they saw him. Having been freed from the evil impostor chancellor and having their own real chancellor back, the King was often very happy for no apparent reason these days.  
  
"Nadia!" he greeted his beloved daughter cheerfully. "You've been adventuring a lot. Thank you, Nadia, and Crono and... was the other one that clever inventing girl? When you see her, please thank her for me. Thank you all so much, again, for getting me off that trial!"  
  
"Anything for my father," said Marle. She was just grateful they had managed to prove that they still had the Rainbow Shell in the castle and therefore save her father.  
  
"If that's the case, how about spending a few days with your poor old dad and telling him about some of your adventures?" asked the king hopefully. "Come on, it wouldn't be so bad, would it?"  
  
"Well..." Marle glanced at Crono. "Something might come up, and I'd have to be there..."  
  
"Please?" the king almost begged.  
  
"Okay," Marle consented, for she really did love her father.  
  
Crono and Frog wandered off and went back to 600 AD for a look. They discovered a sunken desert by accident, killed a few nasty-looking little monsters, found a pretty blue rock, literally ran into a nasty sand skeleton and barely managed to run away with their lives.  
  
"Desert monsters," announced Frog, "are vulnerable to water. I am not yet strong enough. It would be best to have someone stronger with the water- magic, and healing besides. Marle would be an excellent choice, I fear."  
  
"We'll go back to the others and work out a way to tell her," Crono decided, absently throwing his sword up and catching it as it fell down. "After all, bursting in there and demanding her back is somewhat rude. We should talk to Lucca... show her this rock, and see if she has a plan."  
  
They found the Epoch and went back to the End of Time. They healed up before they did anything, then chatted to Lucca.  
  
"In the desert, we found this." Crono showed her the rock. "Ah! How pretty!" She examined it for a while. "I think it invokes a triple tech," she said finally. "It could be very useful. Who is it for? You?" Instantly the rock went dull. "Me?" she guessed, and it glowed brightly. It went dull for Frog, Marle and Ayla but glowed for Pintu. "That's everyone, isn't it?" asked Lucca, briefly confused, then she glanced to her left. "Oh. Magus."  
  
The rock glowed. Everyone looked at it, then at Magus who hadn't actually noticed. "Magus?" demanded Frog, "dost thou imply he can work with others of our team?"  
  
"He won't like it, but we can force him to," grinned Lucca somewhat nastily, throwing the rock up and down. "He might have to be trained up a bit first, but."  
  
"We also found a skeleton, vulnerable apparently to water, and we need Marle," Crono told her. "We don't want to just spring it on her... and I'd like to give her a choice, if she'd like to come with us or stay with her father. How should we get a message to her?"  
  
"The castle has a lot of servants, right?" Lucca asked, as if that was her reply. To Crono's relief she went on. "If we... borrow... the kitchen, we can... I don't know, do something to someone's food so Marle has to come to the kitchen and see what's going on. We'd need someone to bring their meals to them, someone Marle will recognise but her father won't. Not you, Crono," she said instantly when he tried to speak. "Not me, because I think he knows me. Frog is too noticeable, so is Robo. They'd cause a bit of a distraction. We don't want attention." She considered. "Ayla could pass, but she wouldn't know what to do and she'd try to eat everything." She grinned. "Which leaves..."  
  
"Going my way?" queried Magus carelessly when Crono stopped to talk to him a few minutes later. 


	2. Chapter Two

"So, tell me more about your friend Crono," requested the king carefully as he and his daughter sat down at the dinner table.  
  
"Well..." Marle spoke excitedly about Crono, only realising she was raving when the servant put her entree down in front of her. She thanked him, genuinely meaning it, and ended her monologue with, "And, yeah, he's pretty cool."  
  
As the servant was walking back to the kitchen the king queried, "Is it fashionable for young men to wear their hair long these days? Oh dear, I am so out of touch with all of this. Hmm... I don't think I have seen him around before. I really should get to know everyone who works around here."  
  
Shocked, and working it out, Marle got a look at the 'servant' before he disappeared from the room completely. Maybe his hair was neatly plaited back, maybe he wasn't wearing a cloak, but it was definitely Magus. "Um... oh, you know how the rosters change," she told her father although she didn't and nor did he. Hopefully, he wouldn't know she was making it up. 'Magus?' she was thinking, 'what is he doing here? Do the others know about this? Maybe he IS planning his revenge on us! Wait... maybe the others are here too. I need an excuse to get to the kitchen... what did they do with the cook? Speaking of which...' She glanced down at her food. She hadn't eaten at the castle for a while but she was sure she remembered the food being different, maybe a little more intricate. It tasted fine and as long as someone was feeding her she didn't mind, but this whole matter had stirred her curiosity.  
  
She ate and made small talk with her father, wondering how she could get to the kitchen. When Magus came to collect their plates he actually smiled at her and she very nearly died from the shock. She didn't know Magus could smile. She would have enjoyed her father's company a lot more if she hadn't started to worry about exactly what they were doing.  
  
About fifteen minutes later Magus emerged from the kitchen again to serve their meals. The king, in an effort to be friendly, asked him his name. "Um... Janus," Magus informed him, although he was uncomfortable to be using the name after so long- and for this purpose.  
  
"And are you from around here?" queried the king.  
  
"Pretty much," answered Magus cheerfully and got out of the room as quickly as possible without being rude.  
  
"I haven't seen many people around with hair that shade of blue," remarked the king.  
  
"Um... no, you wouldn't," Marle agreed, thinking, 'Unless you'd been to Zeal.'  
  
The king looked down at his meal. "This food is burnt!"  
  
"Unthinkable," cried Marle overdramatically, tipping the chair over in her haste to get up. "I'll... I'll go to the kitchen right away and get it sorted out. I'll not be long!"  
  
She rushed down to the kitchen and ran into Magus. "Does this mean my role is over?" queried the evil wizard regretfully as he levitated the tray he had been carrying and had miraculously kept upright over to a bench.  
  
"What's going on?" cried Marle as she struggled to her feet. Magus watched her fight with her dress for a while before he finally, although with obvious reluctance, helped her to her feet. Marle thanked him again and continued on.  
  
"What are you doing?" exclaimed Lucca in annoyance as she put something into the oven. "I haven't finished cooking the apple crumble yet..."  
  
"You burned my father's meal on purpose so I could come and work out what was going on- didn't you? What is going on?"  
  
"We have a problem. Crono, come here and stir that pot!" Lucca ordered, looking over her shoulder. Crono took the stirring over so Lucca could go and do something else, which turned out to be bossing Magus around. "What are you doing just standing there?" she scolded. "Get to work! Do something!"  
  
"Yes, Lucca. Sorry, Lucca," said Magus meekly, and turned to Marle. "Seeing as you're standing in the kitchen and ruining my fun- I was enjoying myself, serving you lot. Was I any good?"  
  
"A bit too much of a noble bearing, but you are a prince," she shrugged. "I think you were fine- but we're off the subject!"  
  
"Yes. Right." Lucca was washing the dishes; Magus picked up a dishcloth to dry them while he continued in his explanation. "I may as well tell you what we're doing here, then. Or what little was actually explained to me. None of you ever think to tell me anything... here, make yourself useful, put this away."  
  
Marle accepted the saucepan he handed her and put it in its cupboard. "Well, you should make an effort to include yourself, if you want to know what's happening."  
  
He shrugged and went back to the subject. "Anyway, Crono and the useless frog-man were wandering around in a desert when they ran into... this is pretty."  
  
Marle took the knife away from him very quickly and put it in the knife block. "They ran into...?"  
  
"Some skeleton they couldn't handle. Crono did have the frog with him, after all, and he's pretty useless. I mean, I'm not even a real water- mage, but my water attacks are stronger than his-"  
  
"Thank you, Magus, for volunteering yourself to go and fight the nasty skeleton," Crono called from his position at the stove. "Lucca, what am I doing with this? And what is it?"  
  
"It's tomato soup. We can heat it up for tomorrow if we get desperate. Here, you can keep washing up, I'll take over the cooking," she informed him, handing him the scrubber. As they switched places Magus finally told Marle why they were doing this.  
  
"Crono decided we needed someone with stronger water attacks and the only other person besides the frog who specialises in water is you. For some reason they didn't want to just come in and demand that you go with them, so Lucca came up with a plan. We took over the kitchen. The king's meal is burned?"  
  
"Yep," Marle affirmed.  
  
"Hah! I knew I knew which one the king was, oh Crono of little faith!"  
  
"Well, you did have to initially ask," shrugged Crono, handing him a wooden spoon.  
  
Magus continued. "That was, as you correctly assumed, something to get you here in order for someone to explain to you what was happening. Here, have a spoon."  
  
"Why thank you, kind sir," Marle answered absently and put it away. "So what you're really saying is that you want me to help destroy this skeleton."  
  
"No..."  
  
"No? Then what?"  
  
"I don't want you to do anything," Magus corrected her. "Crono wants you to do it."  
  
Marle sighed with considerable irritation. "Yes, okay, you don't need us, you don't really want to work with us, why did you decide to join us then?"  
  
"I don't know," Magus answered. "When you've been planning something for almost all of your life, it gets totally screwed up, and then you get defeated... again, but by what you really hate- you don't think much about important decisions. Take this... what is this?"  
  
The two of them studied the cooking implement for a moment in silence. "Take it anyway, and put it somewhere," said Magus finally and gave it to her.  
  
"Magus, take the king his unburnt food," Lucca ordered. Magus handed the dishcloth to Marle and went off to do just that.  
  
"I should probably go back," Marle said reluctantly, placing the cloth on the rail where it belonged. "I most certainly want to come, but I can't at the moment... could you come and get me sometime this evening, preferably as soon as possible?"  
  
Crono nodded; Lucca's only comment was, "And tell Magus to get back here!"  
  
Marle walked back into the dining room to catch the end of Magus' very wordy, flowery, slightly grovelling apology. "Cookie wants you in the kitchen," she told him, and was again startled by his entirely too happy smile. He was enjoying himself far too much. She wondered if he realised how out-of-character he was being.  
  
"So it's all sorted out?" asked the king as she sat back down.  
  
"Yes," she answered absently, her thoughts elsewhere. "It's all sorted out." 


	3. Chapter Three

AUTHOR'S NOTE: For those of you who have read this and found Magus to be suspiciously out of character, I suppose this is merely my idea of him in a. slightly different state of mind. You'll see.  
  
Later that night, Crono strolled into the castle as if he owned the place. "Is the Princess around?" he asked a guard.  
  
"Why?" demanded the guard, somewhat suspiciously. "I don't want you trialled for kidnapping her again."  
  
"Oh... I wouldn't kidnap her... I have a surprise for her. Just outside the front doors..."  
  
"A surprise? Nadia loves surprises! I'll get her for you!" The guard rushed off to return with Marle.  
  
"A surprise?" she asked Crono (with some surprise). "Is this-" She realised she couldn't say it and just went along with it. They walked out of the castle.  
  
The next thing Marle knew, she had been picked up and was taken into the forest. This hadn't meant to be how she was rescued! What was happening?!  
  
All of a sudden she was in a clearing and the Epoch was hovering just above ground level. Lucca was steering (although Marle still didn't believe she could actually drive). Much to her relief, Marle was placed back on the ground.  
  
In perfect unison, Crono, Lucca and Magus asked, "Surprised?"  
  
"Yep," Marle affirmed. "I'm surprised. So... what are we doing, and where are we going, and we're not all going to fit into the Epoch are we?"  
  
"Yes," answered Crono. "While we were waiting, Lucca stuck another seat in."  
  
Marle exclaimed, "Wouldn't that mess up the whole space-time thing, like Gaspar said?"  
  
Crono and Lucca exchanged glances, then said together, "Nah!"  
  
Magus remarked acidly, "Like I said, the weak always strive to be weaker... or dumber."  
  
The three of them shot him dirty looks, but he didn't look very impressed. Ignoring him, Crono took his place in the Epoch. Marle picked the safer seat but Magus just pushed her out of it and made her sit in 'Lucca's Seat'. She fought, but he pointed at her and she went quiet.  
  
At the End of Time they jumped up onto the platform, and quickly Crono arranged the team. "Marle, because after all this if we don't use her I'll scream, Magus, because he volunteered, and... Frog, because he's a water person too."  
  
"If I am to aid thee in the destruction of the evil skeleton, I shalt not do it with the evil wizard!" Frog stated angrily.  
  
"Yes you will," responded Crono.  
  
"No I won't!"  
  
"Yes you will!"  
  
"Fine," Frog relented, "but should I turn mad, you are the first one I shall shoot, Magus!"  
  
"You're already mad," Magus dismissed him. "Are we going, or what? I'm bored! Let's get going, now!"  
  
"All right already," muttered Marle and the three of them wandered off in the Epoch.  
  
They found the sunken desert with little trouble and wandered around in it. "What happens if I stand here?" asked Marle, and stood in the middle of a darker patch of sand. She fell through; Magus and Frog followed.  
  
"Good one, Marle," Magus almost snarled, brushing sand off his clothes. "Can't you keep out of trouble? I mean, you even somehow managed to get Crono killed-"  
  
Marle screamed in fury and attacked him with her fists. It wasn't very effective, and when he zapped her she backed off and resorted to glaring. "I'll get you killed," she spat viciously and stalked off down some steps.  
  
"That is where Crono and I discovered the skeleton," Frog warned as he followed. "I can take care of the skeleton- without Magus," Marle announced. "No, thou canst not."  
  
She stared at him. "What?"  
  
Frog looked troubled. "Thou canst not," he said again, quietly. "We require Magus, as much as we both abhor the thought. He can use water- magic, and is another person who can attack the nasty skeleton. We only require him. We do not have to like him."  
  
"I don't, and I never will. Come on then, evil wizard," Marle tossed back to Magus loftily and continued.  
  
They found the nasty skeleton. When Marle used Ice 2 on it they discovered (Frog for the second time) that water lowered the skeleton's defence, and when Frog attacked it they worked out that attacking raised its defence. They worked out a little system, mainly concerning Marle and Frog with Magus lurking in the background and occasionally attacking (and once using water-magic when Marle forgot it was her turn). This was effective, until the nasty skeleton directed a nasty sand cyclone at Frog and nastily knocked him out.  
  
"You cover me, I'm going to heal him," Marle ordered Magus.  
  
"Leave him," Magus suggested. He would have said this anyway, even if the person who had fallen hadn't been Frog. He had a reason to suggest such a nasty action (or lack of) but he hadn't yet found a suitable time to tell the others.  
  
"No!" Marle glared at him and then, forced to trust him just a little, turned her back on the skeleton to run to Frog.  
  
"If you want something done around here," muttered Magus darkly, pointing at the skeleton to direct a magical water-attack at it, "you have to damn well do it yourself!" He was tempted to let the skeleton get Marle as well. That was probably unnecessary, he might need her if he couldn't keep this up continuously, and he almost wanted to prove to her that he could be trusted. For the moment, until he worked out what else he could do to defeat Lavos.  
  
Marle glanced at him to ensure that he wasn't being a nuisance by being defeated and noted that he seemed to be doing very well, considering he was fighting the thing by himself. He was attacking normally at the moment. It wasn't a critical hit, but seemed stronger than just a short while before. As Magus used ice again she turned her attention back to Frog and used magic to revive him.  
  
Magus felt the exact moment Frog opened his eyes. Half the power in the scythe he was at the moment swinging drained away making his attack very much less effective. As Frog jumped to his feet the skeleton started to get angry. The three of them accidentally created a system based on who happened to be the quickest; Magus iced, Frog attacked, Marle iced, Magus attacked, Frog watered, Marle attacked, and so on.  
  
Finally the skeleton fell to pieces. "Is it dead? Is it dead?" demanded Magus, almost bouncing up and down.  
  
"Yes, Magus, it's dead," Marle said patiently.  
  
"Oh." The evil wizard looked somewhat disappointed.  
  
Then and there, Marle and Frog worked out a double technique. "If you use water, and I use ice..." Marle began, "we can put the ice in a little bubble of water and dump it on something. Magus...?"  
  
"Don't think you're dumping anything on me," snarled Magus, quickly getting out of the way. Marle and Frog dumped it on the sand instead.  
  
"What shalt we name this?" Frog asked Marle.  
  
"How about 'ice water'?" Magus pointed out as if it were the most obvious thing in the world (which it was).  
  
"He was asking me," Marle informed him icily and turned to Frog. "What do you think about... ice water?"  
  
"Indeed, the title sounds appropriate," shrugged Frog.  
  
That sorted, Marle turned to Magus. "When Frog was out of the battle... why was your attack stronger?"  
  
"Why not?" Magus answered, although he really had intended to tell them.  
  
"Tell me!" Marle ordered, curious again. "Come on, why are you always keeping secrets? Tell me!"  
  
"If you're going to be like that about it..." Magus began, leaning on his scythe. He waited until the faintest glimmer of anticipation and triumph had entered her eyes before saying flatly, "I won't tell you."  
  
Frog drew the Masamune. "Tell us!"  
  
Instantly Magus lifted the scythe. "Put the sword away, Frog."  
  
"If thou agreest to tell us, I shall." Frog didn't particularly care but he was planning to enjoy forcing Magus to do something.  
  
"Put it away or I'll do something you won't be around to regret!" Magus warned, and he meant it. "Away!"  
  
"No!"  
  
Magus threw the scythe to one side. Marle wondered why until he started making intricate gestures. She winced, anticipating The Point, and was surprised when he spread his arms wide. A black hole opened under his feet. Marle realised Frog's danger and sprang at Magus before he could point at anything, throwing him to the ground and sitting on him, trying to pin his arms. Frog ran/jumped over, giving the black hole a wide berth, to help and they took an arm each.  
  
"Okay, you win," said Magus through gritted teeth. "Let me get rid of it."  
  
"Go on, then," was Marle's response.  
  
"I need my arms free."  
  
She just laughed. "Do you think I'm going to fall for that?"  
  
"It's true!" he insisted honestly. "I won't use it, I'll just get rid of it, I swear."  
  
"How long have you been able to do that for?" she demanded. "Didn't Lavos drain you?"  
  
"Yes, I've regained strength since then," he retorted.  
  
"How?"  
  
"If you have to know, I've gone out by myself a few times! After all, if you think I'd lower myself to your standards, you're dreaming. Just let me get rid of it!"  
  
"Why do you want to so much?"  
  
"Keeping the black hole open for an extended period of time drains not only magic but life. Look, what do you want? I'll tell you about the scythe if you promise to let me go."  
  
"Done," she answered although she had no intention of doing so. She didn't really believe him about the whole draining thing and was worried he'd try to kill Frog.  
  
"The scythe gains power when an ally falls. That's all. Now will you release me?"  
  
"Thank you. No."  
  
"This isn't funny!"  
  
"Nor was your attempt to murder Frog," she responded evenly.  
  
"I'll kill you!" Magus vowed. "I'll kill you both!"  
  
"I knew you had a dark motive for joining us!" cried Marle triumphantly. "You don't want to defeat Lavos, you want to destroy us."  
  
"Not all of you. Only you and Frog!"  
  
That was the end of the conversation for a while, because Magus started to fight them in earnest and they were too busy trying to hold him down. Frog noticed that the evil wizard weakened with every passing moment but said nothing. After a while he stopped fighting. Marle waited for a bit longer, looked around for the black hole but, unable to find it, presumed it had closed, and backed off. After checking to make sure Magus wasn't going to leap up and do something nasty, Frog joined her.  
  
"He doesn't seem to be breathing," Marle remarked.  
  
"No," Frog agreed.  
  
"I guess he was telling the truth."  
  
"Yes," agreed Frog.  
  
They studied him in silence before Marle turned to Frog and with an absolutely evil smile asked, "You wanna kill him?"  
  
"No!" exclaimed Frog. "He is an ally now, and one dost not harm allies. We should teach that unspoken law to Magus... and if I am to defeat him, it shalt be in honourable battle."  
  
"Well then... now what?" queried Marle. "Do we... leave him here? Or stay here and hope he wakes up, or take him out and hope the journey kills him... um, wakes him up?"  
  
"I do not desire to stay in this desert and wait for Magus," Frog answered. "I would prefer to depart as soon as possible... and I suppose we should take him with us."  
  
"True. We could use magic to heal him, but that's a waste of good magic. Right, then, we'll drag him."  
  
They took him up the steps and out of the sunken desert, then decided they couldn't be bothered going anywhere else and spent a short time sleeping in the 'forest', what there was of it at the moment. They never had time to properly rest, it seemed, and with any luck the others wouldn't worry or be angry.  
  
When Frog and Marle woke up just a few hours later it was to discover that Magus had gone and with him any chance of all the others remaining calm. Frog just shook his head sadly. It was Marle who remarked, "Lucca is gonna be so mad at us..." 


	4. Chapter Four

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thanks so much to everyone who has written a review! Because I don't like this chapter, I'll dedicate the next one to you (unless I don't like that either). Oh, and I'm really bad with the whole remembering thing, so if I forget, please don't be offended. I don't mean any harm by it...  
  
CHAPTER FOUR  
  
"You what?"  
  
"We lost the wizard," Marle repeated. She lifted her chin defiantly. "He said he was going to kill us!"  
  
"Do you know how many times Magus declares revenge on things, and how often he actually gets it?" Lucca demanded. "How can you lose a wizard? Crono! Get over here!"  
  
"What's the problem?" inquired Crono as he strode casually over.  
  
"They lost Magus," Lucca complained to him. "How can anyone possibly lose Magus? Fine, so I made him leave his cloak here, but still, blue hair, funny clothes, looks absolutely evil, how do you lose him? Did he... run off, or what?"  
  
Marle shrugged. "I presume so. After all, who would want to kidnap useless Magus? By the way, you know that scythe he has? It gets stronger when an ally falls. For him to be useful, everyone else has to die! Is that not evil?"  
  
"But he wouldn't be killing you," Lucca pointed out. "You lost him in 600 AD, right? Where everyone hates Magus?"  
  
Marle thought about this and came up with, "Oh." Then she remembered. "He tried to kill Frog!" she told them and explained the incident.  
  
"Great. This gets better and better," grumbled Lucca. "You lost Magus, in 600 AD, when he was greatly weakened and possibly on the verge of death. Someone could be doing anything to him!"  
  
"I don't have to take this," declared Marle. "I tell you he said he'd kill us, and he tried to kill Frog! Seeing as you love him so much, Lucca, you can go find him. I'm going to spend some quality time with my father!" She stalked off, chose the grey beam leading to the clearing in Guardia Forest in the present, and disappeared.  
  
"Good one!" complained Crono. "What if we need her?"  
  
"I know no-one likes Magus, and personally I don't trust him- and I certainly don't love him," stated Lucca, her eyes flashing angrily, "but we can't just leave him lying around somewhere. From what Marle tells us, he wasn't going to run off. I believe in loyalty! Crono, I'm going to try and find him."  
  
"I'll come with you," Crono decided. He wasn't going to let his best friend in the world go off alone and possibly get into trouble- although who would mess with Lucca when she was in this mood? "Just the two of us should be fine, unless someone else wants to come." Unsurprisingly no-one else offered. "Okay, you can all hold the fort. Should something drastic come up I'm sure you can deal with it. We may as well take the Epoch, Lucca," he decided, and the search was on.  
  
Cold. Hard. Solid. Flat. Yes, Magus decided, it was a floor. Where was it, exactly? He didn't feel like waking up just yet. After all, who knew where he was?  
  
"Doesn't look so intimidating lying facedown on the floor, does he?" sneered a voice. Slash. Magus moved as if he would get up and scream at Slash for saying that, but decided he couldn't be bothered.  
  
"I think he heard you," gulped a feminine voice nervously. That would be Flea. Clearly, Flea and Slash had him, and probably Ozzie too. Was that a good thing or a bad one? Unable to decide, and not caring, Magus tuned out for a while and let his thoughts run wild.  
  
I am the Magus.  
  
I don't want to hurt anyone any more.  
  
Twelve thousand six hundred years gone in a few seconds.  
  
Alfador?  
  
So this is insanity. I don't like it much.  
  
I'm going to kill them. I'll kill them all.  
  
I am the Magus.  
  
This floor is very cold. Where's my cloak?  
  
Alfador?  
  
I don't want to be evil any more.  
  
Why should I help Crono? Why should I help anyone? It never works.  
  
I told them to let me go, I told Marle what would happen. Naturally she didn't listen. Why would anyone listen to the useless evil wizard?  
  
Schala, have you seen Alfador?  
  
I am the Magus.  
  
I'm sick of it, but I don't know how to be anything else. Being evil is so boring.  
  
More fun than being good, though. Yeah. You get to blow stuff up if you're evil. If you're good, you have to sift through the wreckage and look for survivors.  
  
Magus, King of the Mystics? Who the hell thought that up? Wait a minute, it was me. Damn.  
  
What's cooking, Lucca?  
  
Where the hell is my cloak?  
  
Schala? Schala!  
  
Magus decided he didn't want to be insane. It was somewhat confusing. It was time to wake up now. He opened his eyes and as he started to rise to his feet Flea hurried to drape a cloth over his shoulders. He waved him/her (not even Magus knew which) away irritably to fasten it around his throat himself, only then recognising it as an old cloak he had outgrown years ago. Magus, having spent the earliest years of his life in Zeal where ice was a thing of the Earthbound Ones and the freezing temperatures not allowed to enter the kingdom, absolutely hated the cold and had never adapted to it. The cloaks or capes, apart from being slightly intimidating and making pretty noises when he turned around, added a bit of extra warmth. He was vaguely surprised that Flea remembered. Flea, Slash and Ozzie were all the family he had and they loved him, as long as he was powerful and provided he did what they wanted. Should he go against their wishes- for example, if he joined Crono's group which were the enemy- they would think nothing of trying to kill him. For now they needed him, not being powerful enough to try to take over the world without him. However, he didn't need them. True, they had taken him in, raised him as one of their own and turned him into what he was now, but he wasn't sure if he should be thankful or planning to kill them for what they had done.  
  
'Don't trust anyone,' he reminded himself. 'Except maybe Schala.'  
  
"We saved you from Glenn and the nasty human," Flea informed him, eager to please him. "I wondered where you'd gone."  
  
'Off to Zeal to destroy the world,' he thought but did not say. "I have to go now. I need to find what I've been missing for a long time now."  
  
"But you're not strong enough-" protested Flea anxiously.  
  
"I decide when I'm strong enough!" he flared.  
  
"A-at least, drink this." Flea handed him a glass.  
  
He looked at it, then him/her, with open suspicion. "What's in it?"  
  
Slash was relieved at this sign of the old Magus. He explained, "It's just an exilir. We would never try to murder you!"  
  
"Wouldn't you?" Magus shot back, but he drank it anyway.  
  
"You've changed," observed Slash, inspecting his sword.  
  
"Really? What did you expect? I'll get beaten by a kid, a girl, and a frog with a big sword, be dragged off to the last place to which I wanted to return, lose my entire world again and stay exactly the same, shall I?" Magus had been planning to give the glass back to Flea but instead opted to throw it to the floor, where it shattered, and ignore them for a moment.  
  
Flea and Slash exchanged glances. Ozzie had been right. He had warned them that none of the three knew how to properly raise a young boy. They had succeeded with most of their plans (but if they thought about it they would have realised Magus himself had twisted those carefully considered plans) and yet had failed in controlling his temper.  
  
"I'm leaving now," said Magus icily, handing Flea the old cloak. Because they could be useful should this situation or one like it arise again, he added, "Thank you for bringing me here. I would have stayed longer, but I need to do this for myself. I presume Ozzie is around somewhere? You three can hold the fort."  
  
Cloakless, not far off as powerful as he had once been, slightly annoyed and most importantly with a purpose for the first time in a long time, Magus strode away to find a Gate.  
  
Crono and Lucca jumped up onto the platform. Crono surveyed the scene. Ayla was gnawing at something possibly inedible, Robo was probably thinking again, Frog was practising his swordship against the poor innocent lamp-post, and Magus was seated near the save spot combing his fingers through his hair.  
  
"No good," Crono announced as he approached the group. "We can't find him anywhere." There was a short pause while his brain digested what his eyes had seen. "Magus? When did you get here?"  
  
"A few minutes ago," Magus answered as he got up, his eyes focussed on something behind Crono. "Lucca, do you possibly have my cloak anywhere with you?"  
  
"I think I left it in the Epoch," Lucca responded and went to get it.  
  
"Thank you," said Magus when she gave it to him and as he put it on continued, "I hope you don't need me for a while. What am I saying? You never need me. That's good, because I won't be here. I have to find something. You'll do fine without me."  
  
"You're not going just yet," said Crono firmly, "and you're not going alone. I don't want you getting into trouble."  
  
Magus spread his arms (and Frog drew the Masamune in response). "Who would you have accompany the nasty evil wizard?"  
  
"I'll go," offered Lucca instantly, surprising everyone including herself.  
  
Magus looked absolutely shocked. "You will?"  
  
"I too will go," announced Frog, sheathing the Masamune. "For I trust not this wizard with a maiden such as Lucca."  
  
"What, you think I'd sacrifice her to appease the gods of all evil wizards?" Magus shot back. He pointed at the Masamune, hanging at Frog's belt. "If you go, that stays."  
  
"Should the Masamune stay so do both thine arms!" snarled Frog.  
  
"Fine, keep the stupid sword," Magus sulked, crossing his arms. "I don't care."  
  
Lucca sighed; Crono met her eyes, smiling. "Regretting your decision?"  
  
She shrugged. "Maybe I can teach them to get along."  
  
"Not likely!" responded Frog and Magus in unison.  
  
"Right." Crono rubbed his hands together, thinking. "While you three are off searching for whatever it is Magus wants you to find... why do we always travel in groups of three?"  
  
"There's a reason for this group of three," Lucca pointed out. "I won't let Magus go alone, and Frog won't let me go alone with Magus. Not that I want to."  
  
Magus raised an eyebrow.  
  
Crono shrugged. "It's all good. Anyway, as I was saying- Ayla and Robo, we should work on getting Marle back."  
  
"Oh, has the princess run away?" queried Magus.  
  
"There was... an argument..." Seeing in the wizard's expression that the brief explanation wasn't going to be enough, Crono sighed. "Lucca, it's your story, you tell it."  
  
"Marle was all for leaving you possibly dying somewhere and I wanted to look for you, she got annoyed and ran off," was Lucca's explanation. "By the way, why did you try to kill Frog?"  
  
"He was waving the stupid sword at me!" protested Magus. "Have you ever experienced him waving the stupid sword at you? No, I didn't think so! I asked him nicely to put it away, and he didn't. I swear it was in self- defence!"  
  
"You don't attack your allies," Lucca informed him. "You just... you just don't."  
  
"Tell the frog that!"  
  
"We're going now," Lucca decided, trying to change the subject. "Do you need the Epoch?"  
  
"No, we can walk... or hop, in the case of the frog," Magus answered. "I'm sure I know where to find what I'm looking for... at least, I hope so."  
  
Everyone knew he was planning to look for Schala. This was reinforced when he chose the Gate leading to 12000 BC. It was so obvious and quite sad.  
  
"Okay," said Crono, rubbing his hands together again and looking at Ayla and Robo. "Off to the castle with us!"  
  
On the way to the castle Crono stopped at home to talk to his mother and pat his cats. He had five now; the original, a little kitten, a cat which looked and acted very strange, one which always slept, and the feisty one which liked to attack everything that moved. After socialising with his cats they stopped at the fair and had a look. They played a few games, Ayla dragged the other two off to the prehistoric dancing for a while, and Crono very almost won the soda guzzling contest which had been bothering him for ages. They wandered through the forest and managed to get lost, and finally they made it to the castle.  
  
"Should we take over the kitchen again?" wondered Crono. It had worked last time, but... "Robo, can you cook?"  
  
There was a slight buzz as Robo defined the word. "I'm afraid not," he said finally.  
  
Crono shrugged. "I can cook pasta. We'll work it out..." 


	5. Chapter Five

"I trust, Nadia, that this meal will go well?" queried the king hopefully.  
  
"Absolutely," Marle said firmly. "No crazy cooks, no mistakes with the food. Just a normal dinner with the family."  
  
The blonde servant plunked a plate of pasta in front of each of them and said: "Food! Good! Eat!"  
  
Marle sighed and closed her eyes. "I shall count to ten, and you had better be gone by then." She counted slowly to ten and opened her eyes.  
  
Ayla had her head on one side and a quizzical expression. "Marle not eat?" She pointed at the plate. "Ayla eat for Marle!"  
  
Marle stood, grabbed Ayla, and dragged her to the kitchen. Well, Ayla let herself be dragged. "What is the meaning of this?" the princess thundered once she had arrived.  
  
Crono glanced up, looking guilty. "Lucca's apple crumble from yesterday for dessert?" he tried, holding a bowl out to her hopefully. "It's tasty...?"  
  
"What's the problem now?" snarled Marle angrily.  
  
"There isn't one. It's just..." Crono tried to look cute and didn't have to fake his desperation. "I like you to be safe in the End of Time. With me."  
  
Instantly Marle's resolve melted. "I know you're just saying that to con me into going with you, but... it worked. I'll tell Father I'm going to finish the meal and then go with you... but I'm telling him you took over the kitchen," she tossed over her shoulder as she departed.  
  
"That kind of worked," remarked Crono cheerfully. "I wonder how the others are going?"  
  
Lucca rubbed her hands up and down her arms to try to keep warm. She didn't mind cold weather but even with the small fire which was all they could keep going, this night was cold. She breathed out, watching her breath condense in the air, and glanced around. Frog was practically hibernating. There was something for being half a frog, after all. She got up and walked over to Magus, who was as close to the fire as possible without being singed and wrapped in his cloak but still shivering.  
  
"How are you doing?" she inquired. The look he gave her as his only reply was thoroughly miserable. She positioned herself next to him and he even surrendered more than enough of his cloak to cover her without being asked. She waited to see if her added body heat would do much to make him warmer, and when it didn't do a whole lot called, "Frog?"  
  
"Mmm?" was the sleepy reply.  
  
"You cold?"  
  
He wasn't really, but he went over anyway to add his warmth to theirs. Magus had enough cloak for him too, which he happily let Frog have.  
  
As she tried to get to sleep, Lucca wondered where the hell they were going. Magus was the only one who knew and he had been leading them over the snow. At first she had harboured some doubts about his motives and when night fell too quickly had suggested that they spend the night on this big rock. It may be uncomfortable, but it was drier than the snow. When she first noticed how cold he was she decided Magus wouldn't be putting himself through this unless he really wanted to find Schala, which he probably did. She wondered how she'd feel if she lost her sister. She wondered what it was like to have a sister.  
  
Lucca awoke in the morning with a faceful of Magus-hair, which is not exactly the nicest thing to wake up to. She got to her feet and looked around hopefully, but they were still in the snow and it would still be cold. She thought she could see something in the distance, though. Maybe that village? "Next time we take the Epoch. Frog, Magus, wake up!"  
  
They both grumbled and complained but they both woke up. They skipped breakfast, purely because they didn't have anything to eat (Magus suggested frog legs, which did not go down well at all), and continued on their way.  
  
"Magus, get down here," Lucca ordered after a while. "If we have to slush our way through the snow you're not allowed to float. It's not fair!"  
  
"Yes, Lucca. Sorry, Lucca," said Magus somewhat timidly. He cheated; he floated just above the snow. Lucca noticed but refrained from comment.  
  
They walked and froze and froze and walked until they finally reached the Last Village. "This is all that's left," remarked Magus mournfully. "For so long... for so long, all I wanted was to come home. I guess I did, but too late."  
  
"Oh well, how sad," Frog said nastily. "Find your long-lost whatever and we shalt leave this place!"  
  
Magus walked into the commons; Lucca and Frog followed. In the commons could be found what was left of both the Enlightened Ones and the Earthbound Ones, including a little Earthbound boy running around followed by a purple cat. The second the cat noticed Magus it ran over to him, meowing crazily and continuously.  
  
"Alfador!" cried Magus, "I knew I was right!"  
  
The little boy came over cautiously. "Mister, is that your cat?" he queried.  
  
"Yes," answered Magus, picking up the cat. "I was planning to take him back with me... you wouldn't be- too upset, would you?"  
  
"I liked the cat, but it never purred," remarked the boy. "It seems to only be happy when it's with you. And it's yours. You take it."  
  
"Thank you," Magus said to him.  
  
The boy looked at him curiously. "Are you one of the Enlightened?"  
  
"Don't go asking too many questions, now," Magus ordered sharply. The boy ran away. Magus turned to the others. "Okay, we can go now."  
  
"Thee dragged us out here for thine cat?" Frog demanded.  
  
Magus looked blank. "What did you expect I'd try to find?"  
  
"Schala, perhaps?"  
  
Magus just shrugged. "She'll show up eventually. Schala can take care of herself. I'm happy with Alfador for the moment. Because you're cute, aren't you?" The evil wizard scratched the cat behind his ears. "Yes you are! Who's the cutest cat in the world? It's Alfador! It's you! Yes it is!"  
  
"I think I shall be sick," muttered Frog and looked at Lucca to say something. He changed his mind about what he had planned to tell her. "Lucca! What be the matter?!"  
  
"It's nothing," sniffled Lucca, wiping her tears from her eyes. "Just... well, that's so sweet. And sad. He's all grown up now but the cat still knew who he was... I mean, it abandoned its new friend to go to him, and after all this time Magus can still trust his cat which still loves him... Look, girls go through times when everything's emotional, okay?" she snapped. "I wouldn't expect you to understand!"  
  
Both Frog and Magus were staring at her, rather alarmed. They exchanged scared glances and Magus said, "Um... should we go now?"  
  
"Whatever!" Lucca shot back and stormed off.  
  
Throughout the journey back to the Gate, Magus was too preoccupied with cooing at his cat to speak to any of them so Frog was left to spend the time with Lucca, carefully trying not to say anything wrong. It seemed that every second thing he said made her angry, then she calmed down for a bit. However, by the time night fell she started to take offence at everything again and made them keep walking. As a result of this they reached the Gate at about one in the morning and returned to the End of Time.  
  
"Stupid Magus found his stupid cat," Lucca announced to the others as she stalked into the main area. "Oh, hi Marle!"  
  
"Hallo!" said Marle cheerfully. "I apologise for arguing with you, by the way."  
  
"I apologise for fighting too," Lucca responded with a smile. "I could have handled the situation a lot better. Truce?"  
  
"Truce," Marle agreed and they shook hands, then hugged.  
  
"Let's have a look at your cat," Crono suggested, walking over to Magus. Cheerfully the evil wizard handed Alfador over for someone else to admire. "Ohh, how cute!"  
  
"Maw!" was Alfador's only reply. The cat purred contentedly as Crono stroked it. Marle wandered over for a look and instantly stole it from him.  
  
"My cat!" she said firmly, holding the furry purple animal protectively close.  
  
"Bring her here," suggested Gaspar. Marle took the cat to him and he took it from her to study it. "Mmm, yes. A beautiful feline which casts a spell on all who look upon her. But only a cat?"  
  
"Right, that's it, give him back!" Magus snatched the cat away from the Guru of Time. Alfador's purring increased in volume at the wizard's touch. "Alfador will not be involved in any nasty battles with anyone!" declared Magus, glaring at them. "The first person to hurt my cat dies. Is that clear? No-one is going to take Alfador away from me! You're wasting your time, he only likes me! Don't you, Alfador?"  
  
"I've been talking to Gaspar, and we could probably fight Lavos this very moment," Crono announced. Instantly the others shouted protests. "Calm down! Calm down! I didn't say we were going to! There are still many other things we have yet to do." He waited until the others were calm again before going on. "For instance, we need to lay Cyrus' spirit to rest. I don't know exactly how, but Frog will definitely have to go. Magus, you're going too. After all, you killed him. I'm quite tempted to put Lucca with you too, because she might be able to control you, but she's probably still stressed out from your little adventure so I'll go with you."  
  
Frog and Magus sighed with relief but said nothing.  
  
"And Magus, I strongly suggest that you leave the cat behind," Crono said drily. Magus looked a bit annoyed but put the cat down. Alfador followed him to the platform.  
  
"Leave it behind," Crono pointed out. "As in, behind in the End of Time, not just behind your feet."  
  
"I try, I try," Magus answered. "Shoo! I'm sorry, Alfador, but you have to go away. No, you can't travel in the nasty Epoch, you might get hurt. Look, go and talk to Lucca, she's a bit scary when she goes all emotional but I'm sure she loves you. Don't go near Marle without me, I'm sure she bites. Go and bother Spekkio or something! Yes, I know, but nasty Crono won't let you go with me. I have to watch the stupid frog avenge his useless friend. Wait a minute... I'm not so sure about this. To avenge Cyrus, doesn't Frog have to kill me?"  
  
They thought about this. Finally Crono said, "Frog, don't kill Magus just yet. You can have him when we've defeated Lavos."  
  
"Hey!" Magus objected. "You just wait! One day I'll zap you all to death! Ahahaha! Beware the black triangles of doom! Of doom! Doom, I say!"  
  
Lucca, walking over to him, changed the subject. "Before you go, can I have some of your hair?"  
  
"Yeah, sure. Wait! No!"  
  
His protest came too late. Lucca took a pair of scissors from nowhere, yanked at his hair to get it down to her level and snipped off a bit. "Thanks," she said and, whistling, walked off.  
  
"What was that for?" Marle hissed when Lucca was back at the main group.  
  
"I'm going to make a Magus-finder, so if he should run off and try to plot revenge on us we can find him," Lucca replied honestly. "I can't make anything to find him if I don't have something from him. Anyway, he has such a lot of hair, I'm sure he won't miss any."  
  
Magus, one hand on his head where she had cut off the bit of hair, just stared after her. He was jerked out of his thoughts when Alfador meowed. "Yes, I know, but-" he began.  
  
Frog strode forth, snatched the cat, carried him to the wooden gate separating the grey beams of light from the main area and dumped him over the other side. Alfador mewed pathetically. Magus started forward but Crono grabbed him. Frog ran back to help and they dragged the protesting wizard off the platform and into the Epoch.  
  
Lucca opened the wooden gate when they had gone. Alfador instantly shot over to the platform, gave a longing meow, seemed to sigh and returned quite happily to Lucca, winding himself around her feet.  
  
"Are you displaying affection or just trying to trip me over?" Lucca wondered, stooping to pick up the cat. Everyone present began trying to keep the cat happy until Magus returned.  
  
  
  
  
  
Hee hee.. didn't see Alfador coming, did you? 


	6. Chapter Six

CHAPTER SIX  
  
The ghost of Cyrus, in the Northern Ruins of Choras, was growling and snarling and trying to chop up the floor. Magus instantly attacked him, drawing the others into the battle as well. Nothing happened.  
  
"My blade hath no effect!" cried Frog. "Cyrus? Tis me, Glenn!"  
  
"...len... wha... what?" wondered Cyrus, lowering his weapon. He raised it again. "GRRRRRR!"  
  
"What a pity," remarked Magus cheerfully. "Shall we go?"  
  
"We really ought to get this place fixed up," commented Crono, looking around at all the holes. "I borrowed some tools from someone. Maybe we can do it ourselves?"  
  
"And then the floor would fall in and we'd all die," Magus responded, leaning on his scythe. "I suggest we get someone else to do it."  
  
They went back to Choras and found a carpenter who had lost his tools (among other things largely irrelevant to this tale). Crono lent him the tools he had borrowed, paid him a small fee, and followed him back to the Northern Ruins.  
  
"What should we do while we're waiting for them to fix it?" queried Magus. "Cyrus has gone away, so we can't try to beat him up some more..."  
  
"Can you use a sword?" Crono asked him.  
  
"If you want me to chop off both my feet, yes," Magus answered.  
  
"Well, would you like to learn?"  
  
Magus froze, suspicion flickering in his eyes. "Why? What are you going to do to me?"  
  
"Nothing!" exclaimed Crono, exasperated. "Why are you always so paranoid? Not everyone is out to get you. I quite mistakenly thought that you might want to do something productive with the time we have. We aren't going to kill you, unless you run off to plot your revenge on us or something. Look, do you want to learn how to use a sword or not?"  
  
"Well... all right, then," said Magus uncertainly.  
  
Crono would have had him use the Masamune but Frog didn't want to give it up and Magus refused to touch it. Crono lent him the Swallow and borrowed the Masamune. He showed Magus how to hold it, then instructed him in how it was used and they had a rather small mock-battle, with Crono going extremely easy on him. Just as Magus was getting it, people from his not-so-distant past burst in and ruined it.  
  
They heard footsteps, then two people none of the three wanted to see entered their midst. "Leave him alone or I'll zap you!" cried Flea.  
  
Slash drew his sword. "We've come to save you, Magus!"  
  
"I don't need saving!" Magus responded angrily.  
  
"You don't?" Slash exchanged a glance with Flea and said uncertainly, "But you were fighting with this human-"  
  
"If I were really fighting anyone, would I be using a sword?" pointed out Magus scornfully, waving the Swallow around most alarmingly. "I don't use swords! You know that! Anyway, I'd have zapped him!"  
  
Flea queried, "But what were you doing with Glenn, if not trying to kill him? Everyone knows how much you hate Glenn."  
  
"I've joined their group," Magus informed them coldly.  
  
"But they're humans!" protested Flea, and directed a glance of utter loathing at Frog. "Some of them."  
  
"Your point?" queried Magus carelessly.  
  
"Come on, Flea," snarled Slash. "There's nothing we can do here. We'll get him later, if the humans don't kill him first." They left, Slash striding away, Flea flicking occasional melancholy glances at Magus.  
  
"What was that about?" Crono asked Magus.  
  
The evil wizard shrugged. "They thought they had to save me. They'll be out to get me now, as I am only useful as long as I do what they want. Which I'm not doing at the moment."  
  
"We've finished for now," announced the carpenter as he brushed past them.  
  
Magus handed the Swallow back to Crono. "Go on then, crazy frog thing, go and avenge your friend," the wizard snarled.  
  
Frog let the way down to the grave of Cyrus. Magus read the inscription. "Here lies Cyrus, the fool who challenged Magus."  
  
Frog stepped forward to read the inscription himself but Magus wouldn't let him. With an annoyed glare at the wizard Frog lifted the Masamune, which was lifted from his hand by a beam of light. The moment it left Frog's hand Magus took a few quick steps back, wrapped himself in his cloak and glared.  
  
Cyrus' spirit rose to hover near the Masamune. "Glenn," he greeted his friend warmly.  
  
"Cyrus..." said Frog almost brokenly, "I fear I have failed you. I..."  
  
"No, Glenn, you have done exactly what I could have hoped you would," Cyrus interrupted. "You wield now the Masamune? Ah, I always knew you'd be a great hero! Thanks! I can rest in peace now. I don't need to tell you to use the Masamune well, I know you will. Bye!"  
  
"Farewell, Cyrus," whispered Frog.  
  
When Cyrus faded Crono moved forth to read the real inscription. "Here lies Cyrus, avenged by his friend Glenn." So it had always been going to happen.  
  
They returned to the End of Time. Alfador immediately ran to Magus. Crono explained to the others what had happened. As he did this Magus reluctantly joined the others. He was doing this because Alfador also wanted to be near Lucca, much to the wizard's disgust.  
  
All of a sudden Marle giggled. She lifted her weapon and shot at Lucca. Thankfully she mussed, but Alfador meowed in fright and shot off through the slightly open door leading to Spekkio.  
  
"No!" Magus cried and jumped to his feet. Marle shot at him too, and he would have zapped her had Ayla not leapt up to stop him.  
  
"Crono, do something!" Lucca pleaded, but he was too busy laughing insanely. As she stared in horror he drew his sword and attacked Robo. She only realised that Frog too had gone crazy when he attacked Ayla.  
  
Lucca, Robo and Ayla went after the most dangerous first- Crono. Ayla healed him. They went for Frog next, then Marle. The princess struggled the most but they managed to hold her down for long enough. When it was all over a confused Crono asked, "But how did this happen?"  
  
"Um..." said Lucca, "I know no-one else cares, but where's Magus?"  
  
They looked around for him, Marle checking in Spekkio's room but not finding him. Crono suddenly worked out what had happened. "Under our noses!" he cried. "They snatched him from right under our noses!"  
  
"Who did?" demanded Marle. "Who would steal Magus?"  
  
"Flea and Slash! I think what happened is that Flea magicked us into insanity so there would be enough confusion for them to grab Magus without being immediately noticed. You know I told you they tried to save him but only discovered that he'd betrayed them in favour of us? They said they'd kill him."  
  
"It would save us the task," muttered Frog darkly.  
  
"Wouldn't he be able to get himself out of this?" Marle asked.  
  
"Maybe not, but I have the Magus-finder! Nyah ha ha!" laughed Lucca. "I knew we'd have to save him sometime."  
  
"We'll all go in the Epoch," Crono decided. The six of them somehow squeezed into the Epoch and went off on a most unlikely mission. 


	7. Chapter Seven

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I hadn't been planning on doing this, but. what the hell. Chapters Six, Seven, Eight and Nine almost all at once! Then again, when you see how Chapter Nine ends. heh heh heh.  
  
CHAPTER SEVEN  
  
"This isn't funny," snarled Magus as Slash carried him deeper into Ozzie's Fort. "Untie my hands! You can't do this to me. I'll kill you. I'll kill you both! And Ozzie too! Ow!"  
  
His exclamation of pain had been when Slash dumped him on the floor. Flea stole his magic before Slash cut the ropes binding his hands, and instantly Magus scrambled to his feet. "Don't touch me," he warned, tossing his hair out of his eyes. "Harm me and I'll definitely kill you!"  
  
"Oh yeah?" Slash smirked. "With what, exactly?"  
  
Magus darted forwards. He was much quicker than Slash with all his armour on and it was easy to steal Slash's sword. Recalling how to hold it was more difficult and working out how to wield it the hardest task of all.  
  
"You can't use that!" Slash pointed out. "Self-admitted."  
  
"Just watch me!" Magus pointed it at him. Even Slash knew to back off a bit if a desperate person was pointing a sword they couldn't use at you.  
  
The door burst open and in ran Lucca and Crono, Marle not too far behind, Ayla with Robo and Frog lagging behind. "We've come to save you, Magus!" announced Lucca.  
  
"He doesn't like to be saved," murmured Flea anxiously.  
  
Slash hit Magus in the face, took his sword back, grabbed a handful of the wizard's hair to keep him still and rested the blade at his throat. "Take a step and the wizard dies," Slash warned them.  
  
"Slash, don't hurt me," Magus coaxed softly, persuasively. "I can easily remove these humans."  
  
"You joined them, you liar!" Slash cried. There was a slight tremor of hurt in his tone.  
  
"Only to lure them here so we could destroy them. Trust me. Have I ever failed you before? You know that's the way I work," Magus responded calmly. "I lie to people, then destroy them."  
  
"Okay- but you get rid of the humans immediately," Slash relented and let him go,  
  
"I'll need some magic." Magus took enough from Slash to suit his purposes without waiting for a response.  
  
Lucca stared, distraught, as Magus prepared to destroy them. Marle shuffled closer to Crono to hiss, "There's a moment when he's vulnerable. I'm sure I know what he's going to use. When he spreads his arms, get him!"  
  
Magus did some intricate gestures and spread his arms, cloak and hair billowing in a sudden personal wind. Crono moved forward to 'get him' but Slash blocked him expertly, and then it was too late. Magus pointed.  
  
At Slash.  
  
Flea shrieked in horror as the black hole moved towards Slash and sucked him in. Within seconds he was gone. "You killed him..." Flea whispered in horror.  
  
Magus shrugged. "You know, Flea. I even told him. That's the way I work. I lie to people then destroy them. Now, as for you..."  
  
"Don't kill me!" squeaked Flea pathetically. "I was opposed to Slash's plan! I don't want to kill you! Please Magus, have mercy!"  
  
"Me? Have mercy? When you spent so many years teaching me how not to?" Magus countered. "Indeed, you trained me well."  
  
"Ozzie's in his room!" said Flea desperately, pointing. "Don't you want to kill him? He told us to kill you! Yes! It was Ozzie! Please, please don't kill me. I'd say 'what about all I've done for you?' but I know it won't affect you. Don't kill me. You can't kill me. I won't let you kill me!" was Flea's final comment before he/she ran off and quickly disappeared.  
  
Marle ran over to Magus and threw her arms around him. "Thank you so much for not betraying us!"  
  
Magus pushed her away and took a few steps back. "Don't touch me! Don't any of you ever presume to touch me! Do you really think I did that just to not betray you? I killed Slash instead of you because I promised to destroy him!"  
  
Marle stared at him. "Like you said you'd destroy me and Frog?"  
  
"Exactly!" Magus agreed and stormed past the group. He almost made it out of the door before someone coughed politely and he turned back to see Lucca leaning on his scythe. He strode over, snatched it from her grasp and stalked off again.  
  
Unsurprisingly they found him in the End of Time, with Alfador. "Hello," he greeted them. "I suppose you want me to help you save the world some more?"  
  
The others, exasperated, exchanged glances. Would they ever work him out?  
  
"I think Alfador's gone magical," Magus remarked, stroking the cat. "He ran into Spekkio's room, after all. Who knows what the 'Master of War' might have done to him? Lucca, come here. Alfador misses you."  
  
Because it was now the unspoken law that their lives revolved around Alfador's happiness Lucca obliged. The others gathered around the lamp-post for a chat.  
  
Marle poked Crono and gestured to where Lucca sat. "Is she meant to be patting the cat or Magus?"  
  
Crono glanced at them. Lucca was doing something to Magus' hair and talking rapidly. She must have said something amusing because they both laughed. Well, Magus giggled and even Marle had to admit that the wizard's laugh was surprisingly cute. Alfador, curled up next to Magus, was purring contentedly.  
  
"Lucca always liked to play with people's hair," said Crono carefully. "Hers never grows long enough for her to do anything much with it. You're just lucky she hasn't started on yours yet."  
  
"Maybe... but I'm a little worried for her. I mean, Magus? Isn't that a bit much?"  
  
"Oh, it's nothing," Crono dismissed it.  
  
"No!" Marle caught at his sleeve. "Think about what she's been saying. For example, 'Frog won't let me go alone with Magus, not that I want to'. And 'I know no-one else cares, but where's Magus?' And how she was so determined to go looking for him. You just have to think about it!"  
  
Crono shook his head. "No, Marle, you're crazy and you're wrong. I mean, Lucca and Magus? MAGUS?"  
  
"Exactly. Which is why we have to get her away from him and keep them separated. I'm pretty sure he's absolutely clueless, so I don't know if he'll corrupt her or vice versa or if they'll corrupt each other. All the same, Lucca's a deadly weapon. She's absolutely brilliant. If he works out how to use that to his advantage..."  
  
"An evil Lucca? Oh no. No way. Not happening. We'll find something to get her away... Robo?"  
  
Robo looked up. "Yes?"  
  
"You're sick," Crono told him. "You're very, very ill. You've caught a virus or something." "Pardon?" queried Robo. "I am sorry but I do not understand."  
  
With a furtive glance at Lucca, Crono gestured the rest of the group closer and in a whisper informed them of the problem.  
  
"Ah, I have a solution! We shalt kill him!" cried Frog eagerly, drawing the Masamune.  
  
"I'm still not entirely sure that this is worth worrying about," Crono warned them. "It could be merely a silly, girlish infatuation."  
  
"Have you ever known Lucca to do anything girlish and silly?" queried Marle. "Face it! She's in love with him!"  
  
"I am not!" objected Lucca, who had been standing behind her and listening. "I like his hair. And his cat."  
  
"Yes, but I like Crono's hair and his cat and- um- nothing," said Marle guiltily.  
  
"No, go on," Crono urged her.  
  
"Um. No," responded Marle, blushing and rearranging her hair a bit.  
  
"No, take it down. I want to do something about it," Lucca said. Marle obliged. "I like hair," Lucca told them cheerfully. "I plaited Magus' again but he doesn't like it, so he took it out. Nasty person."  
  
"Yes, he is an evil wizard," Crono reminded her.  
  
"Only sometimes."  
  
"No, all the time. He is, Lucca, and everyone knows that. He kills people."  
  
"So do we."  
  
"True... what are you doing to it?"  
  
"I'm braiding it. I invented this braid," said Lucca proudly. "Isn't it pretty? Also, you need someone else to help you take it out. I was going to do it to Magus but he wouldn't let me."  
  
"I have an idea," Magus announced as he walked over. "You know how you have all those double and triple stupid let's-all-work-with-each-other- and-get-along-happy-yay-lala things?"  
  
"Um... I think so," Crono answered doubtfully.  
  
"Well, I think we should all combine our magic and see what happens!"  
  
"Isn't that kind of dangerous?" Lucca asked uncertainly.  
  
"No, Flea and I did it all of the time," Magus replied, although as a matter of fact it was dangerous and they had never done it. "We could test it out on Frog..."  
  
"We could test it out on the one who has the best magic defence," Frog responded.  
  
"Which is me as well as Magus," Lucca pointed out.  
  
"We could just do it here and see what happens," Marle suggested. "By the way, Magus, how much of that previous conversation did you overhear?"  
  
He just looked blank. "What conversation?"  
  
"That's fine, then." 


	8. Chapter Eight

CHAPTER EIGHT  
  
They pooled their magic together to see what would happen. Robo and Ayla didn't have magic but they helped anyway. They used Crono's lightning, Lucca's fire, Frog's and Marle's water and Magus' shadow. What actually happened was a burst of magic which swallowed Alfador and spat him out a few moments later. He had in actual fact become a she, namely a blue-haired woman in purple.  
  
"Schala?" everyone exclaimed in surprise.  
  
Magus continued, solo. "Damn it, where's my cat?!"  
  
"But we found Schala!" Lucca pointed out. "Aren't you happy?"  
  
"Yeah, but what about poor Alfador? Where did he go, then? Schala? Are you all right?"  
  
"I'm fine," Schala assured him, rising. "Oh. You HAVE grown. I had hoped you only looked taller because I was a cat. Oh well. Hello, everyone."  
  
"Okay," Magus began, "where's Alfador, and how exactly did you end up as a cat?"  
  
"And where did your clothes come from?" Marle asked.  
  
"They come as part of the transformation from animal to human," Schala explained. "My family have trained ourselves to know how to do that. Otherwise it would be indecent, not to mention horribly embarrassing. Anyway. Janus, you know that one of the main powers running in our family is changing the true forms of beings, both ourselves and others."  
  
Magus nodded. "I was never any good at it. That's why Frog isn't entirely a frog. I always screw it up somehow."  
  
Schala continued. "I finally rebelled against Queen Zeal and now she wants to kill me. To escape the Ocean palace without detection I transformed myself into a cat similar to Alfador, who was the only cat I had close to copy. I was transported out by a Nu. However, as you know, to perform the transformation on anyone including yourself requires a lot of power and I was already drained from that stupid Machine. I couldn't turn myself back."  
  
"Doth thou mean, thou canst not turn me back?" demanded Frog.  
  
"Defeating Janus will break the curse," answered Schala without thinking and honestly. She added quickly, "Not that you're going to, when I've just found him."  
  
Marle suddenly worked it out. "Oh, so you're Janus!" she told Magus. "You were the little boy who spoke of the black wind and predicted that one of us was going to die."  
  
Magus raised an eyebrow. "Yes, and do you know for how long everyone's known that? I explained it on the North Cape."  
  
"Well, I was so upset over Crono's death, they made me stay in the End of Time. You explained it to Lucca, Ayla and Frog," Marle replied.  
  
"Really?" asked Crono with surprise. "How upset were you? Are we saying, just crying a bit or absolutely unable to live without me? You didn't tell me you were that upset!"  
  
"I have to find Alfador," declared Magus, changing the subject. "He needs me. Somewhere, sometime, my little cat is lost. I want him back. Now!"  
  
"Well, you can go and look for him," Crono offered. "You can take someone along if you like."  
  
"Schala," said Magus instantly.  
  
"And Lucca," Schala added. "I would like Lucca to come as well. I like Lucca. She always got that itchy spot right under my chin." Schala half-closed her eyes and purred blissfully in remembrance.  
  
Magus poked his sister. "Wake up! Take a bite of reality!"  
  
"We get the Epoch," Lucca announced and the three ran off.  
  
Marle sighed. "So much for keeping Lucca and Magus separated. Do you think Schala is on to us?"  
  
Crono asked, "So were you really bawling your eyes out and everything, or just a bit upset?"  
  
"Crono!" Marle complained.  
  
"What? Yes, definitely! Or no, not at all, depending on which response you want."  
  
Marle sighed. "You're insane."  
  
"Aren't we all?" replied Crono with a grin. He heard the wooden gate creak open, turned, and drew his sword. Frog drew the Masamune. Marle followed his gaze and instantly readied her bow. Robo flexed his hands and Ayla jumped to her feet, ready for a battle. Looking slightly lost and absolutely miserable, Flea crept into the main area, hands up.  
  
"You're not allowed to hurt me either," he/she whimpered. "I want to join you."  
  
Crono did not allow his guard to drop. "You? Join us? Good grief, who's next? Ozzie? Lavos, perhaps?"  
  
"Ozzie kicked me out," Flea admitted uncomfortably. "Said it was my fault Slash's dead and we lost Magus. Slash being dead... that's not really my fault, is it?"  
  
"No. Blame Magus," Crono replied. "You'd have to promise not to kill anyone..."  
  
"You'd have to protect me from Magus," Flea replied instantly. "I may not be able to do much but I was sometimes useful. Every now and then. But mostly I got in the way. That's what they said. Look, can I join you or not?"  
  
"You may as well," Crono shrugged. "Do you use any weapons?"  
  
"Oh, no. They never let me touch weapons, I'm just a magic person. I like it that way. Slash can have his weapons. I'll use magic."  
  
"And while we're having this nice chat," began Marle, "are you male or female?" It was the question everyone wanted to ask but no-one except Marle was brave, or rude, enough to venture.  
  
"What's it to you?" was Flea's only reply.  
  
"Well, I was curious," shrugged Marle.  
  
"Yeah, and curiosity killed the rude little blonde princess."  
  
"No killing anyone!" Crono reminded Flea.  
  
The magician shrugged. "I don't mean it. I rarely do. So do I get to join you?"  
  
Crono nodded his assent.  
  
"If you let Magus touch me I'll scream and do something nasty," said Flea flatly. "I cannot be responsible for my actions if he tries to hurt me."  
  
"We won't let him hurt you," Crono promised. "We won't let him, but I honestly don't know if we can stop him. Oh- Schala probably could."  
  
"Who?" demanded Flea instantly, jealously. "Schala? Oh, her. That's fine then."  
  
"We'll introduce you to Spekkio," decided Crono. "Come along, then," and that was how Flea ended up on the team. 


	9. Chapter Nine

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thanks so much to everyone who has given me reviews, especially;  
  
Yuffie-Girl- keep updating! It's great!  
  
Aylakat- Yep, that's right, I AM insane.  
  
Sailor Leo- You keep updating too, you beginner of a revolution!  
  
Psyco-Gotenks- I don't really know what's going to happen either.  
  
Sage of Darkness- I have one thing to say to you- 'quelquefois je vais en fromage bleu'!  
  
And once again thanks et merci to all the reviewers! This uncustomary, possibly unusual amount of updating is for you!  
  
CHAPTER NINE  
  
"If you were Alfador," mused Lucca, "where would you be?"  
  
"Knowing Alfador, anywhere," Magus answered. "Hey, how come you get to drive?"  
  
"Because I know more about the Epoch than you," was Lucca's answer.  
  
"Good point. Good point," he allowed. "But I'm older."  
  
"Yeah, so? Only by a couple of years. Now be quiet, I have to concentrate."  
  
"Concentrate? You need all your driving skills to drift in the End of Time? I knew I should be driving..."  
  
"Well, where do you want to go? When, what time? If you were Alfador would you have stayed in 12 000?"  
  
"Where else do you expect a cat to go? Alfador's not a time- travelling kind of cat!"  
  
Schala interrupted. "Is there a point to this argument?"  
  
"Is there ever?" Lucca replied and set the controls for 12000 BC.  
  
A detailed search of the entire area, including a very quick look in the Black Omen ("Alfador are you in here no good let's go"), yielded only the knowledge that there were no cats in this age. They returned to the End of Time to report their progress, not that they had made any.  
  
When they walked over to main group Lucca said brightly, "Hello!"  
  
Schala informed them, "Alfador is not in 12000 BC."  
  
Magus' only comment was, "What is that doing in the End of Time?"  
  
"You're not allowed to hurt me!" Flea was very quick to tell him. "I'm an ally, and good people don't attack their allies."  
  
"Then it's your bad luck that I'm not good," Magus responded and started to move forwards.  
  
"Magus, please don't kill people here," Lucca requested.  
  
"It's only Flea," Magus replied, not taking his eyes off the magician. "No-one will miss her. Or him."  
  
"Yes, but... killing people is nasty, Magus. It's a bad habit."  
  
"Did you stop to ask yourselves that when you first began to kill Mystics? How much blood stains your hands? Hypocrites!" said Magus bitterly.  
  
"It was in self-defence!" Marle insisted.  
  
"So was mine. The king's army were out to get me, I killed them. Cyrus wanted to destroy me, I got there first. Flea and Slash were going to kill me. I've done you all a favour by getting rid of Slash. He would have killed you. Flea is merely a nuisance."  
  
"Janus," said Schala, "I know not what you have gone through but I have seen enough killing to last me a lifetime. Please refrain from it unless absolutely necessary."  
  
Magus glowered at Flea. "You live, but you have my sister's compassion to thank."  
  
Crono had been thinking and now leapt to his feet. "I know where Alfador is!" he exclaimed.  
  
"You do?" asked Magus with surprise.  
  
"Yep! I have about five cats at home, and one of them looks and acts really strange," Crono explained. "Not only is it blue and purple, but it never purrs, it doesn't like other cats, and it really hates the cold. I don't know where it came from but it very well could be Alfador. Shall we go and have a look?"  
  
Crono, Lucca, Marle, Frog, Robo, Ayla, Magus, Schala and Flea somehow managed to fit into the Epoch, which could only seat three people safely (four unsafely, if one wanted to brave the seat Lucca had added). Crono set the controls for 1000 AD, his present, and when they had arrived there landed near his house. The nine started walking to Crono's house. Magus stopped suddenly and a few steps later Schala also halted.  
  
"What's the matter?" queried Crono, concerned.  
  
"The black wind howls," Magus answered.  
  
"Oh no, the black wind," said Marle sarcastically. "No-one else ever feels it, so I don't really think that-"  
  
A sudden, sharp gust of cold wind knocked them all over. As he rose to his feet Magus observed drily, "The black wind doesn't like it when people don't believe in it."  
  
"Something very bad is going to happen," Schala announced sadly as she helped others up.  
  
"In my house?" cried Crono indignantly. He started striding to his house. Marle and Lucca took an arm each and dragged him back.  
  
"If there's a battle, we need to prepare," Lucca reminded him.  
  
"If there is to be a battle," Magus announced, "I will protect Schala and myself, and I will not work with you."  
  
'Oh yes, you will,' thought Lucca evilly, putting a hand in her pocket to check that the blue rock was still there.  
  
"There won't be a battle. Not in my house," declared Crono and, pulling free, ran to the door. The others followed at a run, or what passed for a run in their special cases. Schala also floated just above the ground when she 'ran'.  
  
Crono burst into the room to be greeted with the familiar sight of his mother. She was cooking something at the stove. "Mum?" he asked, worried. "Are you all right?"  
  
"I'm fine, dear. Are you hungry? Leave your sword near the door, please, dear."  
  
As Crono unbuckled his belt everyone else burst in. "Friends joining us for dinner?" wondered Crono's mother. "Oh, how lovely. Do they like cat casserole?"  
  
"What?" Magus exclaimed. "No-one's eating Alfador!"  
  
"You mean that pretty purple cat? He's for dessert!" cackled the Cleaning, Cat-Eating Monster pretending to be Crono's mother.  
  
The battle which followed was hard. The Monster kept the illusion if Crono's mother so he didn't use magic to attack it and he couldn't reach his sword anyway. The Monster did something to Marle which made her crazy and the others were too busy trying to survive to heal her. The Monster was vulnerable only to magic which counted out Ayla and Robo. Magus, as he said he wouldn't, didn't help. Schala was trying to be a pacifist. Frog wasn't really strong enough magically but he tried. Lucca and Flea were left battling the Monster.  
  
Flea tried something which worked and in return the angry Monster used an attack commonly known to its kind as "Clean Your Room, Naughty Child". This put Flea out of the battle and more out of frustration than anything else Lucca closed her hand around the blue rock, calling on the triple tech 'OmegaFlare'.  
  
"What?" exclaimed Magus as he was dragged forwards. There was a blur of movement, none of them were ever sure of exactly what happened, they OmegaFlared, and Magus was well and truly drawn into the battle.  
  
Even with the black triangles of Magus they were losing. Finally, but with great reluctance, Schala stepped in and used the ultimate magic attack, Dreamless. Three white triangles appeared and became a three- dimensional pyramid which rotated in the air. This attack finally succeeded in destroying the Monster and its last, dying move was directed at the person who had annoyed it the most- Lucca. It would have killed her had Magus not gotten in the way and been hit with it himself. He may have intentionally pushed her out of the way but to most of them it looked as though he had tripped over his cloak.  
  
The Monster faded, and so did Magus.  
  
  
  
  
  
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hee hee. (evil, maniacal laughter) 


	10. Chapter Ten

CHAPTER TEN

"Um... was that supposed to happen?" asked Lucca as she made her way over to Marle to finally heal her.

"I have to find my mother," Crono blurted and ran up the stairs. In his room he found his mother tied up on the floor, Alfador chewing desperately at the ropes. Crono pushed the cat aside and untied his mother.

"Oh Crono, I'm so sorry!" she cried as she sat up. "There's an evil monster downstairs and, oh, your poor cats, your poor beautiful cats, it ate them all except for this purple one here. I don't know what to do!"

"We've defeated the evil monster," Crono comforted his distraught mother, hugging her close. "My friends magicked it to death, it's gone now and it... killed... Magus...? It can't have! Excuse me, I have to check on something." He raced downstairs again to try and work out what had happened.

"Where is Janus?" Schala was asking. "I haven't lost him again, have I? Oh! Alfador!" The cat had followed Crono down the stairs and now rushed over to her, purring. She picked it up gently.

"Is Magus dead?" asked Marle quietly. She didn't really like him too much but she honestly didn't want him to be dead either.

"He can't be," Lucca responded. "Frog is still a frog."

"You do have a point," agreed Crono. "But he wasn't really defeated as such..."

"Janus lives still," Schala announced. "Barely, but enough."

"Lucca's Magus-finder," suggested Frog. "Could we no use that to locate hum?"

"Too late," sneered Flea, getting easily to his/her feet. "I don't know where he is but he can't be in a very good condition. After all, that nasty zap the Monster gave him must have hurt."

They stared at Flea and Crono asked, "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying the Monster may have killed him but _I_ sent him away," replied Flea, eyes flashing maliciously. "I said I'd try to kill him. Thanks for the opportunity. What- did you really think I'd work with you out of the goodness of my heart?" The last four words were said with a sneer. "I'll be going now," he/she said arrogantly and turned to leave.

"Stop right there," Lucca ordered, raising her gun. "Stop, or I'll shoot."

"You don't scare me," Flea laughed.

"Damn you, I_ will_ shoot you!" Lucca's voice shook, probably with anger.

Frog drew the Masamune. "Halt, Flea, or I shalt halt thee."

Marle readied her bow. "If you don't come back here right now, I'll shoot you too."

Crono reached for the Swallow. "I'm with the rest of the group."

Robo added, "I will stop you too."

"Flea bad to Magus?" Ayla demanded. "Ayla bad to Flea!"

Schala put her threat in. "I would break my vow of pacifism to hurt you should Janus be in trouble. Don't give me an excuse to lose my temper."

With a sigh Flea turned. "What do you want me to do?"

"Where did you send Magus?" Lucca asked.

Flea hesitated and everyone with a weapon readied it a bit more. Flea sighed again and said sullenly, "I sent him to Ozzie. It was the first place I thought of."

"And what," asked Lucca in quiet and dangerous tones, "would Ozzie do to him?"

Flea shrugged. "I honestly don't know. The Monster might have killed him, you know."

"I think it's time we paid Ozzie a visit," said Crono softly. "And Flea is coming with us."

"Is your mother all right?" Robo asked Crono. "Should someone stay behind and look after her?"

"Alfador shouldn't come either," Schala decided, putting him down.

"I will look after Alfador," announced Robo.

"Ayla take care of Crono mother!" declared Ayla and raced up the stairs to do so.

"Right." Crono rubbed his hands together. "Let's go."

Crono sat in the driver's seat, Marle on his lap, Lucca and Schala on either side holding Flea in the middle and Frog on the back, in the seat Lucca had recently added. They flew to Ozzie's Fort and stormed in, drawing their weapons.

There was no-one there.

Slightly annoyed they went from room to room. No Ozzie, no Magus, and with each room they found empty Flea's smug grin grew. "Maybe you're too late," Flea suggested. "Maybe Ozzie killed him."

"I won't believe that," snapped Lucca, throwing open another door. Beyond was Ozzie.

"Hallo hallo hallo," grinned Ozzie. "Have you lost your wizard? You'll not be getting him back. Not without a fight!"

Crono Luminaired him and accidentally also hit a switch, one which opened the floor under their feet. The last thing they heard as they fell was Ozzie's evil laughter. With mutual sighs they walked all the way up again.

"You back?" demanded Ozzie. "Oh well, I'll just have to kill you anyway." From nowhere a cat fell down and hit a switch. "No, not that one-" cried Ozzie as the floor opened under him. He fell; they listened for the crash.

"He never gives up, does he?" remarked Marle, shaking her head.

"Where's Magus?" Lucca asked. "We've kind of defeated Ozzie, shouldn't we be getting Magus back now?"

The five spread out carefully, checking the dark and gloomy room but finding no cloaked, long-haired evil wizards. Marle was just walking along when she tripped over. "Is there a problem?" demanded Crono, trying to see through the darkness.

"No, but I think I fell over Magus," Marle answered. The others came over for a look.

"I can't see a thing in this blackness," Lucca complained. "Anyone have some wood? No? Right, I'll try something else." She turned one way, then the other, and stopped when the circle of fire rose around her lighting the room somewhat.

"Thanks!" responded Crono and, kneeling next to Magus, checked to see if the wizard was still alive. "Are you sure this is Magus?"

"He's not wearing a cloak, but who else would he be?" replied Marle.

"Well, I can't really see the colour of his hair, but... true, who else could it be? I mean, you don't tend to find innocent travellers in a place such as this." Crono still couldn't see the face of the person properly, but it had to be Magus. "I don't know..."

"What are you on about?" demanded Lucca. "He's still alive- isn't he?"

Crono shrugged. "I don't know. I'm not a healing person."

With a sigh Marle shoved him out of the way and instantly understood why Crono had been talking about Magus' hair. Ozzie had cut most of it off. He didn't appear to be breathing and Marle told them so.

"I don't believe you," Lucca announced and moved as if she'd check for herself.

"Oh, what do you know about healing people? Wait..." Marle thought about it and admitted cheerfully, "Most likely more than me. Oh well. I can just Life2 him, which is what I always do when someone dies."

She put her hands together and closed her eyes, her hair lifted by an unseen force. Pretty blue sparkles settled on Magus and as they faded he sat up.

"Ow," was his first remark.

Lucca just remembered to extinguish the flames before she hugged him. "It was all our fault! We let Flea join our group without questioning it too much. I'm sorry! No-one's ever going to take you away again. Even if I have to follow you everywhere."

"Um... good. Could you let me go now, please?"

"What? Oh- okay." She let him go and leaned back. "He cut your hair."

"It'll grow."

Marle took Crono's arm and dragged him casually back a few steps. She whispered to him, "Did you notice?"

"Notice what?" Crono replied, equally quietly.

"When I touched him when we rescued him the first time, he went psycho, but when Lucca touched him he just asked nicely if she'd let go."

Crono pondered this and came up with, "You touched him?"

"Crono!" Marle complained loudly.

"What happened to Ozzie?" Magus queried.

Marle explained the 'battle', adding, "What happened to you?"

"I don't know," Magus shrugged. "I was zapped by a nasty monster and now I'm here. My hands hurt."

Lucca took one to study it. "Ow! Are you crazy?" Magus snapped, jerking it back. "I said it hurt! That doesn't mean you get to poke it!"

"Shut up," Lucca retorted. "If it hurts, it's good for you." She grabbed his hand again, ignoring his protest, then let it go to grab the other. "Yep, thought so, they're broken."

"Oh." He lifted a hand to look at it. "He broke my fingers? That was nasty. Oh well."

"Why are you not concerned about this?" Marle asked him.

"About what? Oh, this?" Magus shrugged again. "I'll get angry about it soon. Just wait. I think I'm still half-asleep. Or in a state of shock, or something."

"Well, if you drop by my house, I'm sure I can do something about it," declared Lucca cheerfully, so off they went.


	11. Chapter Eleven

AUTHOR'S NOTE- Warning! Warning! Plot hole ahead! Just... just keep 'poetic licence' (even though this isn't a poem) in mind and proceed with caution....

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Crono took Lucca, Magus and Schala off to Lucca's house. All four of them walked in.

"Hey Lucca!" Taban greeted his daughter cheerfully. "Who are you two?"

"This is Schala and her brother, um... Janus," Lucca introduced them.

As always, Taban was very straightforward. "Are you twins?"

"I'm older," Schala told him. "Um... we just look the same age. Because. We do."

"Where are you from?" Taban queried.

"Twelve thousand BC," Schala replied.

"Zeal," was Magus' answer.

"Choras," Lucca told them all firmly. "You can't believe anything these two tell you, they're always making up stories... Janus broke his hands, and we need to do something about it."

"Oh, that's a bit sad. How did you manage to do that?" Taban asked him.

"I was... um, running around in the Northern Ruins and I fell over," Magus invented somewhat desperately.

"Are they ruined again? Someone really should take greater care of that place," sighed Taban, shaking his head. "So, Lucca, do you have anything planned?"

"I'll just make it up," answered Lucca cheerfully. "Come on."

"I'm not going to be experimented on! Get someone else!" Magus protested. "Crono won't mind!"

"Okay Crono, break your fingers and we'll see what we can do," Lucca instructed.

"I'll break them for him," Magus offered.

"I don't like this plan," said Crono nervously, hiding his hands behind his back.

"Janus, stop being such a wimp," Schala instructed. "I'm sure Lucca knows what she's doing."

"Of course I do," Lucca insisted with indignation. "I always know what I'm doing. Okay... now, what should I try first?" she wondered to herself. "I know, we need some cold water."

"Cold water? I hate the cold!" Magus protested.

Lucca sent Crono out with a bucket to get some water from the sea. She put it on the bench and said, "There, put your hands in that."

"No way! They'll freeze!"

"That's the point," Lucca said matter-of-factly. "They have to freeze, because otherwise I'll hurt you even more."

"I don't care. I'd rather be in agony than be cold," Magus replied icily.

Schala dragged him across the room and dumped his hands in the water. "If I can get used to the cold, you can too!"

"You're all out to get me!" Magus wailed.

"We're all out to _help_ you," Lucca corrected. "Just leave them in there for about ten minutes and..."

"Ten minutes? I'll get frostbite! Then I won't have any hands!"

"It's not that cold," Crono pointed out.

"Everything is cold!" Magus replied.

They ignored him for a while although he complained continuously and asked every thirty seconds if ten minutes had passed yet. Finally he decided he couldn't take it any more and walked over to them. "I think my hands are numb!"

"That's what was meant to happen," Lucca replied. "Now, I was thinking, and I may have an idea." She wandered around the house for a while, gathering the kinds of things she needed, and returned to them. "Hold out a hand. Either one, it doesn't matter."

He obliged. "What are you doing?" he queried curiously as she worked.

"Well, your fingers have to heal straight," she explained. "I'm just keeping them in place. You'll have to be careful with them." She yanked on the bandage.

"Ow!"

"Guess you didn't keep your hands in there for long enough," she noted with a slight smile. "Here, give me your other hand."

"It didn't really hurt," he insisted. "Just an unintentional 'ow' of surprise, you know, when someone does something that should hurt but doesn't really and you just act like it hurts anyway and OUCH-"

"Next time, we make the water colder," she decided. "That should do it. You won't be able to do a whole lot for a while, but you'll get used to it. We'll help you."

"Oh, lovely," he responded sarcastically. "Have you finished hurting me now? Not that it actually hurt, but-"

"Give it up," Schala advised. "Thanks for the lend of your house, um... Mr. Lucca."

"Taban," Taban told her with a smile. "And you're welcome. Please call again!"

Crono dropped them off at the End of Time and returned for the others. "Flea ran off!" Marle told him as soon as he arrived. "I don't know where... it... went, but it's gone."

"We'll keep an eye out for- it, but don't worry too much about the incident," Crono replied cheerfully. He took them back to the End of Time too before returning to his house for Ayla, Robo and Alfador. Robo had very kindly disposed of the 'cat casserole'. Crono made sure his mother was okay, stole Catalack from the Millennial Fair to keep her company, and returned to the End of Time. They did the whole 'have a chat and not do a whole lot' thing, which seemed customary these days.

As Crono was explaining, Lucca went over to Magus. "Can you move your fingers?"

He tried. "No."

"Good. You won't be able to point at anyone for a while but you'll get over it." She hesitated, unsure of how to phrase her next sentence. "Thanks for saving me from the Monster."

"_Saving_ you?" he sneered. "I would never even _try_! I tripped over my cloak, that's all. Why would I save you?" He stalked off to go and talk to Schala.

"You saved her intentionally, didn't you?" Schala asked him softly.

Magus nodded slightly. "It seemed to be the only thing to do at the time," he responded in an equally quiet tone. "These people must be having a good influence on me."

"We found Alfador," she remembered and handed him the cat.

"Alfador!" exclaimed the evil wizard delightedly, holding the cat somewhat awkwardly. He looked at Schala suspiciously. "Is this the real Alfador? You've brought no other little friends from Zeal?"

"As far as we know, this is the real Alfador," Schala replied.

Meanwhile, Marle went to talk to Lucca. Magus' denial of having saved her had been deliberately loud enough for everyone to overhear. "You okay?"

Lucca nodded cheerfully. "I had to know either way. If he'd told me he had intentionally saved me I'd have been a bit worried. I mean, he _is_ Magus."

"You don't really have to pretend. Crono and I have already worked it out."

"You mean you've jumped to conclusions," Lucca corrected. She glanced at Magus, "It's a pity Ozzie had to cut his hair short. Now I can't do anything to it."

"Oh, it's not that short." Now it ended just below his ears. Ozzie was not a hairdresser, so it was jagged and uneven.

"I'll trim it properly for him later. What happened to his cloak?"

"Maybe Ozzie stole it," Marle suggested. "We should get him a new one."

Lucca laughed. "What, for his birthday?"

As casually as possible Crono wandered over and sat down. Marle and Lucca sat down too. "Hey," Crono greeted them cheerfully then lowered his voice. "It's really hard to get any privacy around here, isn't it? I overheard you talking, and I think that although it may seem strange, it's a really good idea."

"What is?" asked Marle blankly.

"We should give Magus a birthday party. I mean, parties always make you happy, right?"

Lucca pointed out the most obvious flaw. "We don't know when his birthday is."

"But _Schala _would," declared Crono triumphantly.

"It might have already passed."

"Then... we'll... have a party anyway. By your comments, I'd think you didn't want him to be happy!"

"Keep it down!" interjected Marle nervously. "We don't want him to find out about it."

"Right, Lucca, you get him away from Schala. I'll ask." Crono leapt to his feet and bounced away.

"Get him away from Schala?" repeated Lucca in disbelief. "How, exactly?"

"Offer to fix up his hair," suggested Marle.

"Good plan." She went over to bother him. "Hey Magus, I think your hair needs neatening. I could do it now, if you like."

"I'm not letting you anywhere near me with anything sharp," was Magus' suspicious response.

"Um, there's a really good place in Truce." She hadn't heard of one but she was sure she could find one. "I'll pay. Come on!"

"But I was talking to Schala," protested Magus.

"Not any more." She took the cat away, put Alfador down, grabbed his arm and dragged him off to the Epoch.

Marle suddenly realised and hurried to Crono. "Well, you managed to get Magus away so you can talk to Schala, but do you know what else we've done?"

Crono thought. "Oh, man! She took him off somewhere and there's no-one else with them. I didn't know she was going to take him away. Wait- she had to get him out, because otherwise he'd overhear. Damn! Oh well, too late." He wandered over to Schala. "When is Magus' birthday?"

She gave him a very strange look but she answered. "In two days. Why?"

"We're planning to have a surprise party for him. And give him a cloak. We have to find one... we'll get there."

"When are you going to have it? I mean, which era?"

"Um..." He considered. "Prehistoric Age, perhaps? Now, how can we make it a surprise?"

"You'll have to prepare it. Why don't you say Ayla was homesick so she can go home for a while, and Robo can go too. Just because. Maybe tomorrow you can send, um... me definitely, maybe Frog, and Marle. Marle can return when we're ready, say we're in trouble, and everyone will run off and save us. But... are you entirely sure about this?"

"Does Magus like surprise parties?"

"He was eight when I knew him. He was a little antisocial then, but he still liked parties."

"That's good then," said Crono cheerfully. "What if we can't find a cloak?"

"We'll make one," sang Marle. "No-one can sew, I don't think so anyway, but we'll get by."

"Or we can make my mother do it," suggested Crono. "She likes sewing and housework and all of that stuff."

Marle gestured the others closer. "Everyone start planning, we have a party to prepare!"


	12. Chapter Twelve

CHAPTER TWELVE

"Where are we going?" asked Magus.

"Truce," Lucca replied, setting the controls for 1000 AD.

"Why? I don't want to go to Truce!"

"Suffer. It's Truce, or _I_ cut your hair."

"Right, Truce, let's go!"

They went to Truce and drove around in the Epoch for a while. "I've lost it," said Lucca finally.

"Oh well, let's go home," was Magus' response.

"We'll get there! Maybe it's at the fair."

"Oooh, the fair! I haven't been there."

"Well, we'll have a look."

They had a look at the fair. One of Lucca's friends, Arlen, wandered over to talk to her. "I saw your invention. What does it do?"

"Hi, Arlen. It's meant to just transport people from one pod to the other, but, well."

"Can I have a go?"

"Oh, you'd better not," Lucca frowned. "I have to fix it first, do some tests, you know. Um... my friend needs a haircut, and we don't really have time for this now, so-"

Arlen eyed Magus cautiously. "Who's he?"

"Magus," answered Lucca without thinking. 

"Really? Why would his parents name him that?"

"Why would your parents name you Arlen?" Magus shot back. "Lucca, this rude person isn't worth our time. Come along now. I want to see your invention too."

He walked off and she followed. "Speaking of rude..."

"I don't like her," announced Magus. "She was extremely irritating. Where is your invention?"

"Which one? I have two here. One is the telepod and you get to beat the other one up."

"Oh, can I see that one?"

"I should have known! You do realise it won't give you any trouble," she informed him. "Oh, wait- you can't use magic. That should be slightly interesting, then. And you can't even hold that sickle thing. Are you sure about this?"

Magus nodded confidently. "Never underestimate the power of an evil wizard."

"If you say so." She led him to where Gato waited.

The rather large robot sang, "They call me Gato, I have metal joints. Beat me up and earn fifteen silver points."

Lucca backed off to let Magus take control. With a cry of, "Hiyah!" the wizard kicked it. "Ow! That hurt!"

It may have hurt, but it was also all it took to defeat Gato. "I lost, you won, here's fifteen points, now wasn't that fun?" sang the robot and gave him fifteen silver points.

"No! That was pathetic!" snarled Magus. "Lucca, your robot is pathetic! Hurts, though."

"Well it _is_ made of metal," she pointed out. "I even programmed it to say so. And I couldn't make it too powerful, or it would have killed everyone who came in here and then everyone would say my inventions never worked."

"You should design a smaller one and stick it in the End of Time so we could have something to practice on. My foot really does hurt."

"That's _your_ problem." 

He gave her a slightly miserable look and she sighed. "What, you want my help to walk around?" When he nodded she walked over to him and let him put an arm around her shoulders. With Lucca taking some of his weight off his foot they wandered out to see her other invention.

"Your foot can't really hurt that much," she muttered.

"How do you know? Have you ever kicked a metal robot?" he shot back.

"No... I don't tend to kick metal things, on account that I know it would probably hurt. I'd still be able to walk on it, though..."

"It's _my_ foot, okay? Maybe I have delicate feet, or something, I don't know!"

"You? Delicate?"

"You wouldn't kick it hard enough," he informed her a bit coldly. "Where's this teleporting thing?"

"Over here. I must say, no-one has ever kicked Gato before."

"Have any evil wizards who can't use their hands given it a go before?"

"Not to my knowledge. See, this is the telepod. The original idea was my father's. I worked out how it could be done and we built it together. Took us over a year. We tested it on our pets."

"But I didn't see any pets at your house," he pointed out.

"Well... one of them came back, but he ran away straight afterwards," she admitted uncomfortably. "So, what do you think?"

He studied it. "Yay," he said finally. "It's pretty, I suppose. Hey, can I have a demonstration? Bring that Arlen girl, we'll try it on her. If it doesn't work, well... one less person to annoy us."

"That would be cruel! Arlen is... um... to be brutally honest, a nasty, back-stabbing bitch if you get to know her. But it would still be cruel."

They looked at the invention in silence for a while. "Let's get out of here and find something more interesting to do," Magus suggested.

"We have to cut your hair first. I'm sure there's someone out here who'll do it for you."

They wandered aimlessly. Lucca stopped to talk to a little girl, who wailed, "Waaah! Where's my cat?!"

"You're not getting mine!" Magus snarled, and pulled Lucca away. His foot seemed to have miraculously healed. "Where are we?"

"The Millennial Fair?" she suggested.

He gave her a dirty look. "Not funny."

"Look, your foot has obviously stopped hurting. Why are you still leaning on me?"

"I'm cold," he said by way of an explanation. "Hey, you. What do you want?"

"What's all the fuss?" grumbled the child he had spoken to. "So what if we won a war against a wizard four hundred years ago?"

"You only won because Crono cheated!" Magus snarled. "Um... that's what I've heard, anyway. It hardly matters now anyway! Is there anyone in this hole who can cut hair?"

"No sir!" answered the boy.

"Okay, I'll do it myself," decided Lucca. "Follow me."

"Lead the way. Wait, no! What am I doing?! Oh well."

"I have plenty of experience," insisted Lucca as she led him out of the Fair. "You've noticed Crono's hair, right?"

"Aaaargh!"

"Oh, stop complaining. You should have seen it _before_ I got to it."

Arlen, who had followed from a distance, waited until they had gone. Her eyes gleamed maliciously. She located one of her other friends and started the rumour she had thought up as revenge, one she knew would quickly become exaggerated. "You know Lucca and her so-called 'friend'..."


	13. Chapter Thirteen

AUTHOR'S NOTE- To everyone who found this in Spanish, sorry! That was a mistake!! Yuffie-Girl, thanks for bringing that to my attention. I couldn't find this either!

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

"Are you back again?" asked Taban with some surprise. "What is it this time, Janus?"

"She's fixing up my hair," explained Magus gloomily.

"It won't take long," called Lucca cheerfully as she went to find some scissors.

"You're letting her do things to your hair? Brave lad," was Taban's only reply as he turned back to his invention.

"Um..." said Magus nervously when Lucca returned, "is it too late to run away screaming?"

"Yep. When was the last time you washed your hair?!"

"Well... how long ago was it when I left Zeal?"

"_Zeal?_ Right, that's it. Go outside!"

While he was waiting outside Arlen walked over to him, appearing out of nowhere. "What are you doing here?" she greeted him.

"Letting Lucca cut my hair. Why, what reason do you have to be here?" he responded coldly.

"Oh, I was just... visiting, but seeing as she's busy I'll come back later." Arlen wandered off.

"Hey you!" Magus called to her. "The bridge is that way!"

"I'll get there," Arlen responded.

Lucca walked out with a few items. "Hey Arlen!" she called cheerfully. "I can't talk to you now, but if you want to go inside, I'm sure my father needs some help."

"I'll check it out," Arlen called back and when neither were looking she hid behind a bush.

Lucca dragged Magus to one side of the island and set the items on the beach. "What are you doing?" he queried anxiously.

"Washing your hair. Get in."

"In the sea?"

"Yep," she answered and pushed him in, jumping in after him.

"It's cold!" he wailed.

"Get over it, you big wimp," she replied mercilessly and dunked him under. She washed his hair in the sea, then dragged him out and made him sit quietly and still while she combed and then cut it. She actually did a very professional job but also, accidentally, made him look absolutely evil. In an attractive way.

"Now I'm cold and wet," Magus complained. "And my neck is cold, and so are my ears. I'm really, really cold!"

"Well, at least you look nice."

"_Nice?_ I didn't just hear you say that. Bring me a mirror!"

"Evil!" said Lucca quickly. "You look evil. And you can't order us around, we're not your henchmen. By the way, Flea ran off."

"Who cares? I'm still cold. And wet. And cold."

"You really feel the cold, don't you?"

"Nah, you think so?" he shot back. "Especially when I'm wet."

"Then don't be wet."

"I'll just miraculously become dry, shall I?"

She laughed. "You're silly. Do you even know how silly you are? You can come in and be dry near the fire. I'll see if my father will lend you some of his clothes."

"I am not silly, and I certainly do not desire to 'borrow' anything from your family," Magus responded icily. "Where did you leave the Epoch? If you don't mind, I think I will leave now."

"Not wet, you won't. Look, don't go all cold and evil or I'll have to push you in the sea again!"

"Oh no, you won't! I'll push _you_ in!"

They had a small mock-fight (in which Arlen ran off to spread more rumours) that ended with them both in the water again. Magus had the upper hand and made Lucca say he wasn't silly before letting her go. She promptly dunked him in the water again. Their battle continued on to the beach where they raced each other back to the house. Magus won. He also cheated.

"Not fair not fair!" Lucca complained. "Floating is not allowed!"

"Get over it, you big wimp," he responded with an evil grin. Lucca jumped, grabbed him, and pulled him down, both of them landing on the grass. "Ow! Now I'm cold, wet, dirty, in pain, and cold!" he complained as he got to his feet and brushed himself off.

"I'll get you back for your cheating," she promised. "Hey, now you need cleaner clothes. You can't tell me you haven't changed since leaving Zeal..."

"Oh, I had to. I grew. It was quite annoying."

"What, you'd still rather be mini-Magus?"

"That's it, I'm cold, let me in," he commanded.

"What's the magic word?" she teased.

"Alakazam?" He sounded honestly confused.

"No, 'please'!"

"Really? That never gets anything done."

"Well, start trying to use it! You're being a good evil wizard these days."

"Must I?"

"I'd be happy if you were."

"All right then. Let me in, please."

"That's better." She opened the door and let him in, then followed.


	14. Chapter Fourteen

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

"Where are they?" demanded Crono. "We've worked it out, we have everything planned. How long can it take to get someone's hair cut?"

"I told you we should keep them separated," sighed Marle. "I _said_ not to let her go off alone with him."

"If I know Janus, and I'm sure I do, she'll be perfectly safe," yawned Schala. She had been curled up asleep in one corner. None of them were quite sure why, but she had probably been cat-napping. "Well... I suppose I haven't actually had anything to do with him for eleven or twelve years, but... anyway."

"Lucca knows what she's doing," put in Robo faithfully.

"Yeah. That's what I'm afraid of," said Marle under her breath.

Lucca jumped up onto the platform, Magus arriving a few seconds later. They were arguing about something. "Face it, I'm right, you're wrong," said Lucca firmly as she walked into the main area.

"When am I ever wrong?" demanded Magus, following. He was wearing Taban's clothes.

The others digested this in silence. It was Marle who demanded, "Okay, what happened?"

"She washed my hair," Magus explained. To him, it was the only explanation needed.

"Right," muttered Crono. "Sure."

"Ayla like Magus hair," said Ayla a little uncertainly.

"So do I," added Marle. _'A bit too much,'_ she thought to herself privately.

"Um... thank you," responded Magus suspiciously. "Blame Lucca."

"I'll bet," said Marle to herself.

"What was that?" queried Lucca.

"Nothing. So you cut his hair?" asked Marle.

"Yep. There wasn't anyone in Truce after all. Did something happen? Why are you looking at me so strangely?"

"Nothing," said Marle again.

Lucca put her hands on her hips. "Damn it, tell me!"

"Um... nothing," Crono told her finally. "Really. It's nothing. But you have grass in your hair."

"I do?"

Smiling slightly, Magus brushed it out for her. "We must have missed those bits."

Lucca studied the expressions of the others. "What? Something is going on!"

Marle asked carefully, "Are you absolutely honest when you say all you did with him was wash his hair?"

Lucca looked blank and exchanged a glance with Magus. "You guys are all sick," said the evil wizard coldly and stalked off to talk to Alfador. Meanwhile, Lucca joined the others.

"Everything's planned," said Crono a bit stiffly and in a whisper. He was very careful not to meet her eyes. "Except for the cloak."

"Look," hissed Lucca angrily, neatening her shirt, "nothing happened! I washed his hair! You're jumping to conclusions again!"

"Why don't we go to the Fair and see if we can find a cloak?" suggested Marle brightly but quietly.

"Good idea! Lucca, you're coming. Marle, you get to come too and I'll accompany you," Crono decided.

As they were heading towards the Epoch Schala called desperately, "Could I come too? It's so boring, just staying here!"

"Yes, you can come," Crono consented. They all went off merrily to the Fair.

While Schala, Crono and Lucca tried to find someone who sold cloaks or capes Marle, bored, wandered off on her own. She stopped to talk to someone and after a while he asked, "Have you heard the latest gossip?"

"No," she answered cautiously. Gossip in this town was usually about her, the king's untrainable tomboy daughter.

"Well! I heard this from Pynta who heard it from Senna who heard it from Arlen who saw it herself. You know Lucca, the crazy inventing girl? She was wandering around here with someone calling himself Magus. Apparently his folks are supporters of the Mystics. I've heard they were a pretty intense couple."

"Couple?" Marle repeated.

The man nodded. "Absolutely. What will her parents say?"

"I have to go now," she blurted and went to find Crono. On the way she overheard a girl telling her friends about Lucca and her 'boyfriend' and what had happened on the beach. She practically ran into Crono.

"Marle? What's the matter?" he asked, concerned.

She pulled him off a little way and told him n a whisper what the man had told her and what she had overheard. "Everyone seems to be talking about it!"

"Maybe it's a rumour," he said reasonably.

"Maybe it's not! I _knew_ Lucca wouldn't be able to keep her hands off him!"

"Hey!" he said sharply. "I know Lucca, and she doesn't do stupid things. I would really like to believe it's just a rumour-"

"But you think there's an element of truth in it?"

"Let's just keep them separated, wait until all of this dies down, and decide that nothing ever happened," he suggested.

Marle nodded somewhat doubtfully. She had her own theory as to what had happened but she'd keep it to herself. 

"On a different note, we found a cloak," Crono informed him. "Schala's just buying it now. We're paying for it with the Universal Treasury." The money that they collected individually was put together and used when necessary. Marle had dubbed it the Universal Treasury. "I thought we'd hide it in the Epoch, get Ayla and Robo out, and tomorrow send other people over to the Prehistoric Age in the Epoch. We just won't go anywhere for two days."

"Got it," reported Schala, appearing behind them. "Do we have to go just now?"

"I think we should," decided Crono. "You can come back and have a look around without- um, later." He didn't want Lucca hearing any of these rumours but didn't want her to ask why Schala could only look around without her. 

They returned to the End of Time.


	15. Chapter Fifteen

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Once back at the End of Time Crono whispered to Ayla that she had to go now. "Ayla homesick," she announced. "Miss village, miss Kino. Ayla go visit!"

"I'll come too," Robo decided. "To experience the Prehistoric Age."

Everyone, including Alfador, went to the grey beams of light to say goodbye to them. When they had gone Magus wandered off to commune with his cat again but Schala joined the main group.

"Dost thou have a cloak?" Frog demanded.

Schala nodded. "It's pretty and black and shimmering. And warm."

"Now all we have to do is wait," muttered Crono darkly and with a shudder. He hated waiting.

About a day later- they guessed the time- Schala, Frog and Marle went off on an 'adventure'. Crono, Magus and Lucca did practically nothing. They attacked Spekkio a couple of times (and lost each time) for practice, played with Alfador, bothered Gaspar and were generally bored.

"I know why we lost to Spekkio," Crono announced. Seeing the expressions of the others he grinned and said, "No, not tactics. We lost because Magus didn't use magic."

"That's because I can't!" protested Magus. "I can't use my hands, remember?"

"And, being absolutely useless, all you do is complain about it," Lucca teased.

"I can still beat you!"

Crono got out of the way as Lucca and Magus wrestled for a bit. He went to stand with Gaspar, who was chuckling. "Cute, aren't they?" remarked the old man. Crono wouldn't really have said so, but he kept quiet. He watched them carefully at first but there seemed to be nothing dirty about it so he relaxed a little.

As they watched, Magus succeeded in pinning Lucca. "Give in?"

"Never!" she vowed, fighting. A few moments later, seeing it was useless, she subsided. "Yep, I give in."

"Hah! See? I knew I could beat you with my hands tied behind my back," he taunted as he rose to his feet.

Lucca sat up. "Only because you're bigger and older and stronger! You have all the unfair advantages!"

"You started it," he shot back.

"Did not!"

"Did so!"

"Did not!"

Magus appealed to the spectators. "Crono, who started it?"

"Well, you attacked first, but she provoked you," mused Crono thoughtfully. "You both started it."

"Yeah, well I still think you cheated," Lucca muttered darkly.

"Oh yeah? We'll do it again and I promise not to cheat!"

"Bigger and older and stronger and _faster_," admitted Lucca a few minutes later. "Feel like letting me up?"

"No. Not yet. Not until you agree that I didn't cheat!"

"But you do cheat! And I'll get you for it!"

"Well you'll have to stay on the ground until you say it."

"Look!" cried Lucca. "Alfador's in trouble!"

"Where?" Magus scrambled to his feet and looked around wildly. "Where?"

Lucca threw him to the ground and sat on him. "I win! I win!"

"You cheated," said Magus sourly. "Hypocrite!"

At that moment Marle entered the area through the Gate. "Help!" she cried, "it's a tragedy... Lucca, get off him!"

"He started it," said Lucca quickly as she got up. "Honest. Crono would agree. What's wrong?"

"Crono, how could you let them do this?" Marle demanded crossly.

Crono shrugged. "There wasn't much I could do. Um... this tragedy?"

Marle looked at him blankly for a moment, then remembered. "Oh! Yes! This is a crisis! Schala and Frog are in trouble. I barely escaped with my life!"

"What happened?" queried Magus, sitting up.

"Schala's in trouble and you just sit there and ask questions?" exclaimed Marle. "There's no time! Bring Alfador."

"No way!" Magus replied instantly. "Not if there's trouble."

"Yep, that's reasonable," Lucca agreed. When Magus wasn't looking she grabbed Alfador and hid him in Crono's hair.

"Gee, thanks," muttered Crono. "Okay, let's go to the rescue!"

Because Schala, Frog and Marle had taken the Epoch they had to use the Gate. Crono went through by himself, the others following quickly behind. Marle led them to the meeting place.

"How, exactly, did you manage to get into trouble here?" Magus asked suspiciously.

"Always so many questions! Do you always ask so many in a crisis? Come on!"

They walked into the meeting place. Crono removed Alfador from his hair. Schala, Frog, Ayla, Robo and Kino jumped out of their hiding places to yell, "Surprise!" Magus' response to this was completely unexpected. He ran off.

"Damn," said Crono into the silence which followed. "This wasn't meant to happen."

"Meow!" agreed Alfador.

"Of course," Lucca realised. "Not knowing that we had him, Magus would return for Alfador before he left. But where then?"

No-one knew. "Maybe he'd come back," suggested Robo hopefully.

"No, I think he'd go somewhere else," Schala disagreed. "He always runs off with Alfador when he's upset."

"Did we upset him?" queried Marle. "We weren't meant to do that. We were meant to make him happy."

"I'll go back to the End of Time and stop him," Lucca decided. "Where did you put the Epoch?"

She took the Epoch back to the End of Time and the moment she appeared on the platform Gaspar, who had been desperately trying to keep Magus there until someone else arrived to collect him, breathed a sigh of relief. "Stay!" Lucca ordered.

"Where is Alfador?" Magus asked coldly.

"We have him. Why did you run away?"

"Why do you always make fun of me? I know you all hate me, you don't have to constantly remind me!"

"It was a surprise birthday party for you! How is that making fun of you?"

"I don't know when my birthday is. I haven't known for years, I don't even know how old I am. And I don't like parties, and I hate surprises. Now, excuse me, Lucca, I'm going to... to... I'm going to 12000 BC to live out the rest of my life as an ex-Enlightened, and none of you are going to so much as _look_ at me again!"

"It will be cold there."

"I really don't care," he answered.

Seeing that he meant it, she ran over to close the wooden gate before he could go through. "That's not going to happen. I said no-one was going to take you away again, and I mean it. If you go, you take me too!"

"You have an obligation to defeat Lavos," he pointed out.

"So do you! Anyway, all the others can do it for me."

"You won't ever see the Epoch again."

"I won't ever see _you_ again if I let you go."

She met his eyes evenly. He sighed. "Just get out of my way."

"No!"

He pushed her out of the way and reached out to open the wooden gate. She grabbed him. "No! You're taking me too!"

"Go home!" he shot back, trying to shake her off. She had a death grip on his arm. "Can't you all just leave me alone?"

"What about Alfador? You can't just leave him behind!"

"Watch me. Fine, you win. You can come with me to 12000 BC, way before your time, and spend the rest of your days in the cold and never see your friends or family again."

"Sounds good to me," she answered.

"Damn it! I'm an evil wizard, okay? I don't need a sidekick and I most certainly don't need you!"

"We got you a present," she tried.

He hesitated. "You did? Oh."

"Look, why don't you just come to your party and afterwards you can leave. Okay?"

"Well... okay, then."

__

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry for the slightly strange way this chapter ends. It just... ends. Suddenly. I know. Sorry. Maybe the next two chapters, when I get around to posting them, will make up for it... hee hee...

And if you're looking for any good Lucca/Magus fics, check out:

Yuffie-Girl 'Never Ever in a Million Years'

Sailor Leo 'Just Hungry...'

Dark Creation 'The Struggle For Happiness'


	16. Chapter Sixteen

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

They went back to the Prehistoric Age and Lucca had to drag Magus into the meeting place. The others were quite happy to have an excuse to party but Magus, who had unknowingly supplied the excuse, didn't really want to join in.

"Don't you ever have any fun?" Marle complained and handed him a cup of sweet water. "I mean, honestly!"

"I'm an evil antisocial wizard, what do you expect?" Magus shot back. "I don't even want to be here! What's in this?"

"Water," Crono volunteered. "As far as we know."

"Are you sure? You wouldn't nastily try to poison me on the day that might possibly be my birthday, would you?"

"No! Don't be so suspicious! Just drink it," suggested Lucca.

"You're all out to get me," Magus sulked but he drank it anyway. Crono held a box out to him. He looked at it suspiciously but didn't take it. "What is this?"

"It's a present," responded Crono and waved the box a bit. "I swear we're not trying to kill you."

"Well... all right, then." He accepted the box. "Could someone open it for me, please? I can't move my fingers, if you recall."

"Oh. That's right." Crono opened it for him and took the cloak out.

"Oh, how pretty! It's black and it shimmers! I like it already," smiled Magus happily, putting the box down. "Of course, I can't put it on either, but..."

Taking the hint, Crono put it on Magus and went back to the main group. They watched with badly concealed glee as Magus bounced around, trying it out. It made pretty noises and he was satisfied.

The prehistoric people came to gatecrash. They played party games, ate a bit (or a lot if you were a prehistoric person) and drank a lot of sweet water. Schala drank one cup, decided it was alcoholic, and opted not to drink any more. The prehistoric people departed at about midnight, taking Kino with them and leaving the mostly tipsy group to do as they would.

Schala, Alfador and Robo were the only ones currently in the village who were not slightly intoxicated, and Schala watched the others carefully to ensure that no-one did anything they'd regret in the morning. Robo was content to let the crazy humans do as they would, even joining in on occasion.

"Truth or dare?" Marle was asking Lucca.

"Um... truth," Lucca answered.

"Okay... what really happened that day you cut Magus' hair?"

Lucca giggled. "I can't remember."

"It was fun," added Magus.

"Um..." said Lucca. "Frog. Truth or dare?"

"Truth," replied Frog.

"Right... do you really want to be Glenn again?"

"What kind of a question is that to ask at the hour of midnight?" demanded Frog. "Marle, truth or dare?"

"I'll be different and say 'dare'," grinned Marle somewhat drunkenly.

"Very well. I dare thee to go to the midst of the village and to scream as loudly as possible, 'I give up! I give up! I _AM_ a chicken'."

Marle scrambled off to do so, and they heard her voice from where they sat. When she came back she picked up something and said, "I know! Let's play 'spin the'... 'spin the prehistoric eating utensil'!"

She crouched down to spin it. They watched. When it came to a halt they looked at it some more. Finally Marle said, "Okay Crono, your turn!"

Everyone had a go at spinning the prehistoric eating utensil. Finally Crono said, "You guys, we're not playing it properly! We should play it properly!" He told them the rules of 'spin the bottle', adapting it to a prehistoric eating utensil. 

Crono set the ball rolling (or spinning) and it pointed to Marle. He kissed her on the lips, and eventually Schala had to say, "Okay guys, that's enough! Moving on now!" Marle reluctantly pushed Crono away and had her turn, the prehistoric eating utensil pointing to Robo. After her initial outburst Schala spectated in silence but when Lucca spun the prehistoric eating utensil and it landed on Magus she intervened. She was actually quite curious to see what would happen but she knew that had Crono or Marle been able to think they would have prevented it. "I think you've played enough of that," she said firmly. "Why don't you go to sleep?"

"Because we no tired!" Ayla declared.

Several crazy games later Schala was sick of them. "It's two in the morning! I'll be really grumpy if I don't get some sleep!" she warned. "Fine, I'm taking Alfador to the village to get some sleep. You lot can do whatever, I don't care!" She picked up Alfador and stormed off.

Crono looked around the party. Magus was asleep. Everyone else was laughing about something. Crono rubbed his hands together gleefully and said, "Okay, someone wake up Magus. We'll play 'spin the prehistoric eating utensil' again!"


	17. Chapter Seventeen

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I wrote most of this story on a bus with Sage of Darkness looking over my shoulder, telling me what to write and to elaborate. A lot of what you've already read, and what you will hopefully read next, came from her suggestions. Thanks, Sage!

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Lucca opened her eyes. She couldn't see a whole lot. She looked around desperately and found her glasses, for some reason, on Magus who was lying possibly comatose next to her. She took them off him and put them on herself as she rose.

She walked around for a bit, trying to locate the others, and slowly it dawned on her that she was wearing Magus' cloak. She sat down for a bit to try and work out what happened and remembered bargaining with him for the privilege to wear his cloak. It had been something like she could if she took something off, and she had a very bad feeling that it hadn't been her glasses. She checked her clothes carefully. They were all there but her shirt was buttoned up incorrectly. Absently she fixed it and went to wake someone else.

Crono and Marle were dead to the world. She hauled Marle off him and shook his shoulder. "Wake up!"

"My head hurts," Crono groaned, trying to focus on her. "Are you wearing Magus' cloak?"

"I was cold. I think. What exactly happened last night?"

"I'm not sure. I seem to remember something about a prehistoric eating utensil..."

"Wake up Marle," Lucca instructed. The princess was wearing her hat. She took it and put it where it belonged, namely on her head, and looked for Frog. He was sleeping in a tree. "Wake up!" she yelled at him.

He woke up and fell out of the tree. "Ow! What doth thou thinkest thou be doing?! A frog needs his sleep! Did thou perchance discover whom it was that hit me with a hammer just now?"

"You're hung over. It happens. Where is Ayla?"

Frog rose unsteadily to his feet. "I shalt walk with thee. What be thou doing, wearing the cloak of Magus?!"

"I was cold," she replied, already getting sick of being asked that. "Have you seen Ayla?"

"Nay, I have not."

"Oh well. She'll be here somewhere."

They found Ayla sleeping peacefully on the ground. When Lucca poked her with a foot she bounced up happily, not experiencing aftereffects from last night at all. "Party fun!" she grinned.

"Do you remember what happened last night?" Lucca asked her.

Ayla frowned, shook her head. "Ayla not know."

"Who else is there? Oh, Robo." Lucca found him quite easily. Frog stayed to talk to Ayla. Being a robot, Robo didn't drink and wasn't affected by alcohol anyway.

"Good morning," he greeted her. "I did not expect any of you to be up so early."

"What time is it?"

"Midday."

"Oh." She thought about this for a moment. Eventually she decided to forget it and asked, "Do _you_ remember what happened last night?"

"Yes. Do you want to know?"

"Um. No. Not really."

Robo nodded. He hadn't thought so. "You look very nice in Magus' cloak, by the way."

She sighed and sat down beside him. "Okay, I give in. What did happen?"

"Well, after Schala left you played 'spin the prehistoric eating utensil'. After that, I think it was Magus who suggested frog-tossing. The rest of you, including Frog, certainly agreed readily enough. That was how he ended up in the tree. I think Crono threw him there. Speaking of Crono, he and Marle were getting rather friendly. I don't think anything really happened, they just slobbered over each other for a bit. Ayla... at about four, she just curled up and went to sleep. I'm not really sure what you and Magus were doing, except that it involved you taking off your clothes."

"Only my shirt," responded Lucca. At that moment it finally sank in. "Oh my God. I'm never getting drunk again."

"Someone ought to wake up Magus," Robo commented.

"I'll give him back his cloak but I'm not waking him up. I don't think I can look him in the face for the next thirty years," replied Lucca gloomily. "Maybe I'll run off and join the circus until he goes away."

"Didn't you say he was leaving after this?" queried Robo.

"That's what he thinks!" Lucca responded and walked over to the sleeping wizard. She took his cloak off and carefully laid it over him, but decided not to wake him. She wouldn't let him leave but she didn't exactly want to talk to him for at least the next few weeks.

Schala entered the meeting place, Alfador running at her feet. "I hope you all embarrassed yourselves horribly last night," she greeted them.

"Yes, well." Crono thought of Marle and tried not to blush.

"Are you all up? Oh, except Janus. Wake up! Alfador, would you wake him up, please?"

Alfador meandered over, leaned as close to Magus' ear as catly possibly and said, "**_MEOW!!!!_**"

The result was instantaneous. "I'm awake! I'm awake! Ow! My head hurts," Magus complained. "Don't bother with a party next year. It could kill me. It might kill all of us. Ow. What happened last night?"

"How much do you remember?" queried Lucca somewhat nervously.

"Um... bits." He sat up. "Oh. I remember the bargain we made for the cloak."

"You do? Oh. I have to go now." She wandered off a bit. She didn't really know what had happened but she was drawing a conclusion mainly from what Robo had told her.

"Why? What happened with the cloak?" asked Marle sleepily.

"Oh, nothing. I let her have it, is all," Magus invented. "Seeing as you gave me the cloak, I may as well grace you with my presence for a while longer. Can we stay here and sleep some more, or do we have to go and fight Lavos?"

"In this state?" groaned Crono. "Let's go back to the End of Time and sleep. Who stole the Epoch?"

"The question is not," announced Frog, "who stole it but rather why are there two of it?"

"You should use the Gate," Schala suggested. "I'll take the Epoch. I don't trust any of you to drive it at the moment."

They went through the Gate in one group of three and two groups of two. Schala took Alfador in the Epoch and returned to the End of Time.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm back again. Just can't keep me away…

Sage of Darkness- Thanks for everything. See you on Sunday, a la Foire!

Yuffie-Girl- I absolutely love your fic. Write more!

Azalai- Definitely cannot wait to see what you come up with!

Sailor Leo- Written anything lately? Hint hint… love your story!

Kit Thespian- Hooray! More Lucca/Magus fics!!

Sick Little Fiend- Somewhere deep within our most closely guarded and expertly concealed inner selves we are _all_ chickens… heh heh…

Thanks to everyone who reviewed for boosting my ego so nicely. Pretty soon my head will be so big, I'll have to have my front door widened… or perhaps the entire wall taken out… thanks again!


	18. Chapter Eighteen

Sailor Leo- Oh, no way. Not happening. You can't… just do that! If you think YOUR Magus is OOC, look at mine! He's being unMagus-like all over the place! I love your story, and it started the whole revolution! No! Keep going with it!!

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

"What did you get up to last night?" queried Gaspar good-humouredly as the others half-staggered into the main area and fell over.

"I think we can all just stay here for a while," Crono decided, so they did.

They dozed for a while and when they woke up properly they were all feeling better. Marle watched Alfador run around happily, meowing like crazy and making random people pat him. "If Magus can have a pet," she wondered, "why can't I?"

"What kind of a pet would you have?" Crono queried.

"I don't know. Some goldfish. Isn't there a pet store in Porre? Crono, I want some goldfish!"

"Okay, we'll go out and get some fish," sighed Crono. He walked to the Epoch, Marle following, and remembered something they'd agreed to do which hadn't actually happened. They had to separate Lucca and Magus and they had taken Lucca last time. "Magus, do you want to come?"

"And look at fish? I don't like them. Ugly things," Magus replied.

"Fish are cute!" Marle disagreed.

"You can't pat fish," Magus pointed out.

"I happen to like fish. Tastes are individual! I think fish are cute."

"Oh, they taste all right with a bit of lemon..."

Marle said, "No! You're not eating my poor fishies, and neither is your _cat!_"

"Oh, whatever. No, Crono, I don't want to go," Magus said firmly.

"In that case... Lucca?" Crono called.

Lucca shook her head. She was carefully studying her gun. "I want to use the spare time I have to fix things on this," she reported, lifting it slightly.

"Is it broken?" asked Crono with concern.

"Nup. I wanna make it better!"

"Fine, Marle and I will go off to Porre ourselves and look at fish," Crono decided and took a few more steps towards the Epoch.

"Maybe we should separate you two," Magus said almost carelessly. "After all, we know what you got up to last night."

Crono turned to look at him and noticed the almost nasty gleam in his eyes. He didn't like it at all, but he turned away without comment.

"He knows," Marle said as she settled herself in the Epoch. "He's not as clueless as I first thought. He definitely knows we were trying to keep Lucca away from him, and he might have always known she's in love with him. What was that nasty look about?"

"I don't think it meant anything. I think it was just an 'I'm an evil wizard, fear me' glare." He set the controls for 1000 AD and paused. "Does that mean he _does_ remember what happened last night?"

"How frightening," Marle commented. "Now, Crono, my fish..."

"We'll get there."

They flew off to Porre and found the pet store with relative ease. They wandered in. There were animals all around, the shopkeeper in the process of feeding the animals, and a bunch of people off to one side, talking about something.

"Lucca? Are you sure?" one of the girls asked doubtfully. Marle grabbed Crono and they pretended intense interest in the kittens nearby. Well, Marle pretended.

"Yeah, really! I swear it's true. Everyone's talking about it," another person said earnestly. "I didn't really think Lucca would do that either, but I'm sure it's true."

"Oh, what happened?" queried a third curiously.

The second told the tale. "Well, if what everyone's saying is to be be believed, Lucca has this crazy boyfriend, Magus. I know the name's strange, his mother was a Mystic or something. So you didn't hear about what they did on the beach at her house?"

"I really like this fluffy grey one," said Crono earnestly. "Look at it! It has pretty blue eyes and it jumps around on everything and it's sooo cute! Don't we need another cat?"

"Alfador would eat it. I've heard enough, now I want my fish."

"Sorry, what did you hear?" Crono asked as Marle dragged him over to the fish. 

Marle told him, adding. "They did say they didn't believe it of Lucca, but... maybe when we get back we'll find out exactly what happened." 

Crono replied, "Choose your fish, and let's go."

They wandered around and looked at some fish. Marle chose a particular two she wanted. It was quite amusing, watching the obliging and good-natured shopkeeper chase the fish around the tank with a net. Eventually Marle had her two fish in a little bag. They also bought a fish tank, filters, ornaments, and all the stuff that fish like. Then they went back to the End of Time where they proceeded to set up the fishtank.

"You actually _did_ get fish," remarked Magus disbelievingly.

"They're cute." The fish tank done and Marle's fish settled happily, Crono leaned back and rested an arm around Marle's shoulders. "Aren't they beautiful? What will we name them?"

"Look at you," said Magus in disgust. "You're almost cute yourselves. Quite the proud parents, aren't we? Anyone would think you had just had twins or something. Pathetic," was his final comment before he turned his back on them. "Lucca, take these things off my hands!"

"They won't have healed," Lucca worried.

"I really don't care. They're irritating, and I can't do anything with them."

She warned, "Your hands might heal strangely. They'd most likely be unusable and we'd have to break them again to get them almost usable. It would hurt a lot, and we'd have to use more cold water. Very cold."

"I'll take my chances," he said with a shudder. "I want them off!"

"Okay," she said mildly. "It's your decision." 

You go out there and you read 'Just Hungry' by Sailor Leo _right now_. Go on! Get! 


	19. Chapter Nineteen

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Lucca made Magus sit down and while she worked called over to Marle, "Hey, what _are_ you going to call your fish?"

"Um... I don't know," Marle replied.

"Battered and Crumbed," Magus suggested, flexing his freed hands. "It hurts, Lucca!'

"Live with it," she answered mercilessly, rising. "You were the one who wanted me to take them off. Crono, I'm bored. Can we go somewhere? On a picnic, or something?"

"I like the picnic idea," said Crono appreciatively. "We'll go and bother my mother. She'll make a picnic basket for us. We could have it at some clearing in Guardia Forest."

They somehow managed to squish everyone including Alfador into the Epoch. Crono drove to his house where his mother was doing some kind of housework in the kitchen. When Crono asked if she could make them some food for a picnic she agreed happily, although she kept flicking glances at Lucca and Magus. She had also heard about it but though she thought Lucca far too sensible to make mistakes she wanted to be quite sure about it.

About half an hour later they went off with a picnic basket to find a nice clearing in which to have their picnic. No sooner had they sat down when Magus jumped up again, Schala tensed, and Lucca shivered.

"The black wind howls," Schala murmured uneasily.

"That was really cold," Lucca announced. "But why could I feel it?"

"You have spent a lot of time with Magus," was Schala's reply.

"Kelke," murmured Magus softly, gazing into the shadows as if something would leap out and attack them at any moment.

"Who?" asked Crono, lowering the basket to draw his sword.

"Kelke," Magus answered. "Kelke Peatsar. He showed up at my castle five years ago and tried to smite me. It hurt a lot, but I survived. He's an evil wizard from another universe and wants to be the only evil wizard here."

"What, by killing you? No way!" Lucca snarled, drawing her gun.

"Kelke is very powerful," Magus warned. He recalled Schala's comment and turned to her. "What do you mean, Lucca's spent a lot of time with me? How would that affect her?"

"Oh, we meant to warn you but then you disappeared," Schala responded. "Those who are close to beings affected by the black wind can feel it too. We're not sure why."

Magus glanced at Lucca as if considering, then ignored her. "I'm not close to Lucca. I'm not close to anyone."

There was a sudden whirlwind, it began to rain, thunder boomed, against all physical laws a tree began to burn, the flames unaffected by the rain. Blackness fell. In it a person appeared, glowing white. He wore a white robe. He was yellow-haired and as he lifted his gaze to study them they saw that his eyes were an unusual shade of blue.

"Do not seek to trap them with illusions," Magus warned, moving forward. "You may wear the colour of purity but I know your manner is black!"

"As black as yours," Kelke noted, "or as it used to be. I come here, Magus, to offer you the chance to return to the dark side. Where you have always belonged, and you know it."

"I am not longer as evil as I once was," Magus answered. "I will not follow you to the darker side. I am... content to waver between good and evil."

"Then I will have to destroy you," replied Kelke.

"Hah! Just try!" Magus made some quick and intricate gestures, then pointed at the other wizard. Nothing happened.

Kelke laughed merrily. "I was present when Flea sent you to Ozzie. Before I let him touch you, I left you something I thought you'd enjoy. Namely the inability to use magic. Until you personally defeat me, you will be absolutely unable to use magic on your own. Isn't it great? Oh yes," Kelke remembered, "I forgot to tell you. Ozzie, Flea and Slash have worked for me for the last year. Reluctantly at first, but as soon as you were defeated Ozzie crossed over." He frowned. "Only Flea is left now. You killed the others. For that, I think I shall kill you."

Instantly, those with weapons readied them and moved forward protectively. Schala went to stand next to Magus, hands lifted threateningly. She had decided not to be a pacifist if someone was going to attack her brother.

"That's cheating!" complained Kelke. He glared at Magus. "Soon. I know what will hurt you. I'll destroy you- this is a promise. I will be the only wizard here!" With a black flash, he disappeared. The rain stopped, the fire went out, the blackness lifted.

"That didn't go too badly," said Crono.

Kelke reappeared, snatched the picnic basket, laughed maniacally and disappeared again. "Now he dies!" screamed Crono. "Revenge! He can threaten my wizard, he can mess up my hair, but he doesn't take my food and live to... to eat it!"

"I want to go back to the End of Time," said Magus quietly.

"Don't let him get to you," Lucca advised.

"Shut up," he snapped. "Haven't I told you to leave me alone? I am going to the End of Time and none of you children had better think to stop me. Come, Alfador!"

"I shall come with you," Schala announced as Alfador ran over to Magus. "I have to gather my things first. You go on ahead, I'll follow soon."

Magus did not reply, just stalked off. Schala, who had brought no belongings, went to talk to Lucca. "He means not what he says," she told Lucca quietly. "I did the same thing for a while when I was told that the black wind affects those close to me. I tried to push everyone away." She focussed on nothing, remembering. "I blamed myself when I first discovered that Janus also felt the black wind, but Queen Zeal explained that it wasn't my fault. I got over it. He doesn't want to hurt you- in fact, quite the opposite. He also won't want Kelke targeting any one if you because you get along with him. Now. I have to go and stop him from being nasty to you," Schala finished finally and went to do so.

"Don't bother telling me not to try to 'push the others away'," Magus greeted her coldly. "I should always have reminded myself that making friends anywhere is a bad idea. Something happens to me, or to them."

"It is not fair to do such a thing to Lucca, who cares greatly for you," Schala responded.

"She cares too much," muttered Magus bitterly, turning away, his cloak swishing most satisfactorily.

"Don't turn your back on me, Janus. Don't even try to push me away. It won't work," Schala scolded. "You can't live by yourself for all eternity."

"I won't be alone," Magus responded over his shoulder. "I'll have Alfador with me."

"You have changed so much! The Janus I knew at least gave others more chances and, although he would not admit it, cared for more than just his cat."

Magus turned and grabbed her shoulders. "The Janus you knew," he spat, "is dead! Don't try to resurrect him. Janus is no longer in existence, do you understand? There is only the Magus!" He let her go and started to walk away.

"Janus," she began, her voice uncertain. When she spoke again her tone was hard and cold. "Magus. Don't you treat me that way. Look at me when I'm talking to you! I don't know how those who took you in raised you, but it certainly wasn't as a prince of Zeal. How old are you now? Twenty, twenty-one? You still act like a selfish boy of about eight! People here care about you. Maybe you grew up in an environment where no-one really cared at all but it's changed. You don't have the right to intentionally hurt other people by hurting yourself or running off! Do you understand?"

"Um... yes," answered Magus meekly. "Sorry."

"I've been wanting to yell at you for a long time now," Schala admitted. "We know now that Kelke wants you to join the black side, and I won't let you go. You have to completely release the evil. You may have to work at it, but I know you can succeed. You may be unable to use magic, but fine! Work with the sickle, or scythe or whatever it is. And don't try to be alone. You may have to defeat Kelke by yourself, but you cannot get to him alone."

"He'll use you and Lucca against me."

"Only if he gets his hands on us," Schala countered. "He won't. I can protect myself, Lucca can protect herself, and we can protect each other. We will not give Kelke a weapon he can use to destroy you. Now come on."

They returned to the others, who were all complaining that they were hungry. They sat down for a chat and were surprised by several bellbirds. Destroying them was all too easy. Ayla eyed them hungrily, but no-one would let her eat them.

"What we do now, Crono?" Ayla asked miserably.

"I don't know," admitted Crono. "We go and fight Kelke in revenge for stealing our picnic, I guess... anyone have any ideas?"

"Indeed, I would like to battle Kelke," announced Frog suddenly. "There shalt indeed be but one evil wizard, and that shalt be Magus. No-one has permission to destroy Magus bar myself."

"Thanks, I think," Magus responded.

"Right. We battle Kelke," declared Crono. He paused. "Anyone know how to get to him? Lucca?"

"Well," began Lucca, "if we modified the Epoch to travel between universes..."

"We do not know in which universe Kelke resides, and may get lost," Robo disagreed. "I don't believe that method would be effective."

"What do you suggest then?" Lucca asked, curious.

Robo considered, shrugged. "I do not know. Perhaps some further research is required."

"How would we research alternate universes?" wondered Lucca. "Is there a library in the castle or something?"

"A fairly extensive one, yes," Marle responded. "I don't know if there'd be anything about different universes, though."

"There has to be a way," Lucca said to herself, cleaning her glasses on the hem of her shirt. "If Kelke can do it, so can we. Perhaps it's a magical thing... but how would we get to the right universe? Maybe we can just give it a go and keep trying until we get the right one. That would be a terrible waste of magic, though. You're right, Robo, we need to do some research."

Crono said, "Lucca and Robo, you go to the library. Take Schala with you. We're not far from the castle, so we'll all walk there together. Everyone else, we're going to take over the kitchen. Our motive? Because we can!"

They walked to the castle and went their separate ways, Marle going with Lucca, Robo and Schala to show them the way. Crono led Magus, Ayla, Frog and Alfador to the kitchens.

"We're taking over!" Crono shouted as they burst in.

The cook groaned. "Not again! This time when you tie me up, could you not do it so tightly, please? Last time you cut off the circulation! Why do you always want to take over my kitchen?"

"Because we like to!" Crono replied, making his way over. The cook stood placidly while Crono tied his hands.

"What shall we do here, Crono?" asked Magus eagerly.

"Ayla hungry. Make Ayla food!" Ayla announced.

"Shalt we let Kelke destroy our picnic?" Frog demanded. "I say, nay! I suggest that we make a second, more glorious basket and defiantly host a second picnic!"

"Hear, hear!" Magus cheered.

"We shalt have to work hard to create something more glorious than the delectable cooking of Crono's mother," Frog mused. "Alas, I cannot cook. Which of us present can?"

"I can make pasta," Crono volunteered.

"What 'cook'?" Ayla queried, her head to one side.

"Meow!" said Alfador.

"_I_ can cook," declared Magus. "Honestly, there are other skills that can be learnt apart from those of battle."

"How did you learn to cook?" Crono demanded.

"Who do you think did all the cooking in my castle?" Magus replied. "Ozzie used to kidnap humans and make them cook for us. Several of them taught me, and I took over eventually. I mean, Ozzie and Slash just can't do it. And I still have nightmares about Flea's attempts." He shuddered.

"What can you cook?" queried Crono.

"What do you want?" Magus countered smoothly.

"This will be fun!" decided Crono and so began the Great Picnic Cookup.


	20. Chapter Twenty

A/N: ***stands, lifts champagne glass*** First and foremost I'd like to thank… what? No speeches? Oh, okay, then. It was fun, this whole story thing, but appropriate that it's finishing now. Schoolwork and all of that.. anyhow, maybe if you're nice to me and I have the time I'll ost the sequel… let's see about that…

CHAPTER TWENTY

Meanwhile, Lucca was leafing through a book. They had already checked briefly through a lot of books but found nothing about alternate universes. She began reading in earnest.

Marle, hoping she had found something, stole the book and checked the cover. She raised an eyebrow. " _'The White Rose'_? Good book, but not exactly what we're looking for."

"I can't find anything," admitted Lucca. "Maybe Schala's found something. Schala? Schala!"

Schala opened her eyes and looked at them with great annoyance. She had settled down in a warm spot with the sun shining through the window and had been dozing off. "What? Cats need their sleep!"

"You're not a cat any more," Marle pointed out.

"So I'm not." Schala stretched and yawned, then rose to her feet and walked over to them, carrying a book. "This tells of another universe. Completely fictional, I'm afraid. It talks about walking through wardrobes and being in whole other worlds."

"I have also found nothing," Robo announced, walking over. "Perhaps we should return for the others, bring them here and see if they can discover something we would miss."

"Can you imagine Crono in a library?" laughed Lucca. "How crazy!"

"Can he read?" Marle queried.

"As far as I know, yes. I think everyone in our group can read. Except maybe Ayla, I'm not sure reading was invented back then... okay, shall we go and get the others?"

They were delayed a bit because Marle lost the kitchen. This was because she rarely went to the library, which was huge, so technically she lost the door leading out of the library, and when she found it she was completely disorientated. Eventually they found it, and as soon as they walked in Crono grabbed Lucca and dragged her off.

"We're going to have another picnic!" he told her cheerfully. "Kelke may have stolen it the first time, but we're damn well going to have one anyway! Wait... we're having this second one because I wanted to prove that Kelke couldn't stop us. Oh well! This picnic," he announced, "is going to be even better than the last one. It's kind of a picnic in progress at the moment, but we'll get there. Anyway, you have to help with the cooking. Fine, I mean, 'could you please help with the cooking?', but anyway. And we're kind of stressing Magus at the moment, so he might appreciate some help."

"Magus can cook?" she asked disbelievingly.

"No, I'm trying to work out how you use this thing for the fun of it," Magus shot back. "When did the Earthbound Ones become so civilised... that's one thing I'll never get used to... fix it, Lucca!"

Lucca shoved him out of the way and pressed a button. "Oh," said Magus. "I was going to do that next. Well, if you're so good at it, you take over!"

"Thank you, I will," she retorted.

Lucca absolutely took over, but no-one else really minded. Magus helped as much as he could and both of them had lots of fun ordering the others around. They had a bit of trouble when Magus decided he didn't like the grater and blew it up into little pieces, but Lucca assigned Crono to cleaning it up and no-one mentioned it afterwards (mainly for fear of going the same way as the grater). About an hour later Lucca had them cleaning up the kitchen to make it as tidy as it had been when they started, or perhaps even more so. She gave the cook back his kitchen, they stole a basket, and they departed the castle, Crono proudly carrying the basket containing their work.

"This looks like a nice place," he decided and sat down.

"Crono, this is where we had it last time," Marle pointed out, joining him.

"Well, it was a nice place last time too. I'm hungry! Let's eat!"

"By the way," said Lucca as she carefully chose a piece of cake, "if Kelke shows up again, could someone grab him, please? If I can get something from him I can make a Kelke-finder too. That could come in useful."

"Okay, grab the evil evil wizard," Magus nodded. "Got it."

"As opposed to the good evil wizard?" Frog asked him.

"Yep. Exactly. I have to be a good evil wizard now or Schala might yell at me again..."

"Do you know what we forgot?" Schala commented.

Crono looked at all the food. "We have lots of goodies, and cutlery and plates and cups and all of that."

"Yes, but there's nothing to drink," she pointed out.

"Ayla get sweet water!" said Ayla eagerly.

"No!" Schala responded sharply. "No sweet water, ever again. I'll go and steal something from the castle. Janus has to come with me. I'll get lost."

"You think I know anything about the castle?" Magus complained, getting to his feet and following her. "Hey, I'll race you!"

"You're on!" Schala responded and they floated off at a great speed. The last the others heard of them for a while was Schala screaming, "Hey, stop cheating!"

"Told ya," Lucca nodded firmly. "He cheats. Um... now what?"

They waited until Schala and Magus had returned before properly staring the picnic. It went for a long time, because they couldn't be bothered doing anything else.

"I'm bored," said Marle finally when the food had all gone and it was beginning to get dark.

Crono grinned with inspiration. "I know. We should play 'spin the modern-day eating utensil'!"

"No," warned Schala sleepily. "No spinning anything. Or doing anything else you did at that party, for that matter."

Frog had accidentally patted Schala once and now whenever he tried to go away she hissed at him. Resigning himself to his fate, he remarked, "I agree with Schala. I, for one, do not wish to end up in a tree again."

Magus had wandered off a little way to look at trees and had dragged Lucca with him. His excuse was that he was cold. He really did over-use that, but she wasn't exactly reluctant to go. They were still in earshot of the others and quietly Lucca asked, "Speaking of the party, do you remember what happened?"

"Every bit," he answered. "I wasn't exactly as drunk as the rest of you. This is a pretty leaf."

"Yes, very nice. Okay then, what happened?"

"Aren't trees amazing things? They're so tall and... treelike, and they do nice things for the environment and... yeah."

"Don't try to change the subject!"

"Do you really want to know?" he challenged her.

"Yep. If something happened, I have a right to know," she replied.

He sighed. "You have a point. Okay, I'll tell you. You were drunk, and I took advantage of you."

"Not enough information."

"Well nothing really happened anyway- don't give me that kind of look! I'll steal your glasses again!"

"You do that and I cut the rest of your hair off! And break your fingers again. Just tell me!"

"Okay, okay, I'm getting there. You were cold, and asked if you could borrow my cloak. I said no. You got annoyed, asked if I wanted something for it. I think I said that if I gave you my cloak, you had to give me your shirt. You agreed. But the moment you put my cloak on, you nastily stole your shirt back. You didn't quite manage to do it up correctly, but you were drunk... and I couldn't help you, because I couldn't use my hands. That's it. See? Nothing happened."

She relaxed somewhat. "I think I can live with that."

He looked straight ahead and smiled to himself. "I got a good look at you without your shirt, though."

"_Magus_!" she shrieked and hit him. (Arlen, who had been following to listen to their conversation, ran off without being noticed.)

Crono called, "Hey, you two! Get over here! We're going to have a nice warm pathetically... um... pathetic ending, and watch the sun set in a friendly, comfortable, free manner with no strings attached, or else."

"Did you say warm? I'm there," Magus responded.

The nine of them sat down on the red-and-white chequered blanket they had brought along, purely because there was always a red-and-white chequered blanket at picnics. Crono and Marle were sitting together. Alfador, who did not care for sunsets or pathetic endings, climbed into Magus' lap and promptly went to sleep. Robo monitored the passage of the sun as it sank from view with curiousity. Ayla just thought, _'Colours! Pretty!'_ Frog was zoning out, not really thinking a whole lot. Schala had allowed him to stop patting her and had curled up again, all ready to get some sleep. Lucca wondered if she could modify the Epoch to go into outer space but then, settling against Magus, decided it didn't matter anyway.

They watched the sun go down.

****

The Nice, Warm, Pathetically Pathetic Ending.

__

Epilogue

The sun set.

They sat in silence for a while. Finally Crono asked plaintively, "Are you sure we can't play 'spin the modern-day eating utensil'?"

****

This Is Definitely The End.

"No it's not!" complained Kelke, hidden away in his castle in his little universe. "What about me?"

Shut Up. You Get Dealt With In The Sequel. This Is The End.

"But I don't want to be dealt with," protested Kelke. "And I've run out of food!"

****

Shut Up Or I'll Smite You!

"Okay... I'll be quiet. Until the sequel..." Kelke laughed evilly. "I'll get you then, Magus! I'll get you all!"

****

We'll See About That... THIS IS ABSOLUTELY THE END!

The End.

For absolutely great Lucca/Magus stories, check out-

"Never Ever in a Million Years" Yuffie-Girl

"Two's Not A Crowd" Azalai

"Just Hungry…" Sailor Leo

"Struggle for Happiness" Dark Creation


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